


A Perfect Life Set To Music

by CUKat23



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Clexa, Eric Clapton - Freeform, Explicit Language, F/F, Fluff, Song fic, based on Old Dominion Song, clarke and lexa - Freeform, clarke and octavia friendship, cuteness, lexa and raven friendship, mad - Freeform, ne-yo, snapback, wonderful tonight
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-13
Updated: 2018-01-22
Packaged: 2018-07-14 19:51:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 32,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7187741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CUKat23/pseuds/CUKat23
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This work used to be called "In Your Snapback" but since I have decided to make it a series of one shots, I decided to change the title.  Just a series of one shots covering different events through Lexa & Clarke's relationship, each one set to and inspired by a different song.  This is an AU Clexa story set during college.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In Your Snapback

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this story was inspired by the song Snapback by Old Dominion. If you haven't heard it yet, go check it out. The fic doesn't match the song perfectly but it is definitely what gave me the inspiration. I haven't written a fic in years so be kind but feel free to throw any constructive criticism my way. I forgot how much fun writing used to be to me so if you would be interested in more one shots from this universe please let me know. I may have a couple more in me. Who knows? I hope you enjoy this. If you do show some love cause that makes me happy and feel free to follow me on Tumblr @lexaneverleft and @tattedkat2314

Lexa checked her reflection in the full length mirror in her bedroom. She was pretty happy with the way her outfit had turned out. She was going for casual but still wanted to look good and she thought she had pulled it off pretty well. She had on tight blue jeans, a white tank top that stretched tight across her toned stomach, and her favorite black, lace-up combat boots. Her long, brown hair was pulled up in a messy bun on top of her head. Satisfied with everything, she ran out of her apartment and locked the door behind her as she slid her cell phone into her back pocket.

Once she got downstairs, she admired her black jeep Wrangler fondly. It was by far her most prized possession. Lexa and Raven had spent every free moment their senior year of high school getting it fixed up. It had been in rough shape when she first bought it for $800 from her mother’s friend. Indra, Lexa’s adopted mother, could have and would have been more than willing to buy Lexa a nicer vehicle but the young brunette had refused. Indra had done so much for Lexa the past 5 years prior to that point, that Lexa felt guilty asking her for anything else. It also partly had to do with the fact that Lexa was very independent. She had lived and fought on her own through the foster care system before Indra found her. Indra was a highly praised public defender who had managed to get Lexa out of a minor shoplifting charge when the girl was 13. During the time they spent together, Indra saw how smart and determined young Lexa was and took her in. Lexa had been hesitant at first because she had never had anyone really want her to be around. She had been in and out of many foster homes and she figured Indra would just be another one of those but the woman was just the opposite. She was tough on the girl but it was everything she had ever wanted. Indra made sure the girl was well fed, got to school every day, and even would help her with her homework. For the whole first year, Lexa woke up every morning expecting it to be the moment that the bottom dropped out of her now perfect life but it never did. 2 years later, Indra adopted Lexa officially. Lexa knew Indra would do anything for her but after all that, she couldn’t let the older woman just hand her a nice car. No, Lexa wanted to work for it and show Indra everything she had taught her about sticking to a task until it was all the way done.

When Lexa first bought the vehicle, it had been in less than satisfactory shape. The engine needed to be completely rebuilt, the transmission was shot, the interior was in pretty rough condition, and it needed a paint job among other things. Her best friend, Anya, so affectionately, called the jeep a “hunk of junk” until the day Lexa and Raven declared their masterpiece finished. Both girls were extremely proud of the way the vehicle had turned out. Lexa wasn’t much of a mechanic so she had recruited Raven to help her not long after she got the Jeep. When she first bought the vehicle, Lexa had been a little concerned that it would take her forever to get it fixed up but then she met Raven at the beginning of her senior year. The two sat next to each other in an English class that Raven clearly had no interest in. Lexa had not intended to become friends with the girl but as she soon found out, if Raven wants to be friends with you, there’s not too much you can do to stop it. The girl started to grow on Lexa and she soon found out that Raven was a “mechanic prodigy” (or that’s what Raven called herself anyway). One day she heard Raven talking about how her senior project for her auto diesel class involved a yearlong project and a light bulb went off in Lexa’s head. She had proceeded to explain her Jeep to the young mechanic and instantly saw the girl’s eyes light up. So that’s how it went. Lexa bought the parts, Raven taught her about fixing up the jeep, and in return Lexa helped Raven pass English. It was a good arrangement and Lexa had gotten a beautiful vehicle in the end.

As Lexa climbed up into the Jeep, she took a second to throw her heavy Biology book into the back floorboard of her Jeep. She took another quick look around to make sure the Jeep was otherwise clean. Once she was satisfied with the tidiness of the vehicle, she put the jeep in reverse and backed out of the parking spot starting to make her way to her destination. It was a pretty day so she had the soft top off of the vehicle and was enjoying the warm sun beating down on her tan skin and the wind blowing around what hairs had fallen loose from her bun. As she drew nearer, she felt herself getting more nervous. She couldn’t explain the nervousness. She had known Clarke for a semester and a half now but she got butterflies every time she saw the girl. They had first met last semester on the first day of classes. 

 

(Flashback)

Lexa had to take an art class as a basic requirement and she decided that Art Appreciation was the least threatening of the available options. The class was being held in the small auditorium on the far side of campus so she had deciding leaving a little early didn’t hurt anything. She was surprised to find, however, that the trip across campus was shorter than it had seemed and she had arrived a bit earlier than she intended. That meant, much to her dismay, that she was the first one in the otherwise empty auditorium. She looked around the small room and decided on a seat towards the middle of the room. She sat down in one of the red cushioned chairs and dropped her bag to the ground beside her feet. She looked down at her cell phone again to see that only a few minutes had passed since the last time she checked. She quickly sent a snapchat to Raven of the empty classroom with the caption of “What kind of loser is 30 minutes early to their art appreciation class?” before deciding to start reading from her English Lit book. It had only been a few minutes when she heard someone talking in the lobby. The brunette tried very hard to not listen in on the conversation but the soothing voice and the topic of the conversation kept luring her back in.

“Octavia, no. I’m not going on another blind date,” the voice spoke from right outside the room. A short silence followed before the voice spoke again. “O, I’m not giving up on love.”…(silence)… “Yes, I’m fully aware that I need to have sex and I’m not grumpy.” The last part was whispered but Lexa didn’t miss a single word. 

Another short silence fell before, “Okay, yes, Finn and I have been broken up for a long time and I’m completely ready to move onto to something bigger and better but…”….(silence)… “O, you are vulgar.” The last part was followed with a laugh from the girl in the hallway and Lexa could not understand why but it made her smile too. She had no idea who this girl was or who she was talking to but the girls’ laugh was almost melodic to Lexa’s ears. She finally gave up on pretending to read and closed the book before folding her hands on top of it. She very carefully tried to glance over her shoulder to get a peek at whoever this mystery woman was. Much to her dismay, all she could see was a flash of blonde hair pace by the room every few seconds. 

“There was nothing wrong with Monroe.” …(silence)… “Of course I thought she was ‘hot,’ not really my type but she was definitely an attractive girl.”

Lexa’s ears almost visually perked up at that bit.

“Listen, I know you’re very concerned about me but I promise you, I am fine. I’m not giving up on love, I just don’t want to go on anymore of those awkward blind dates. Please?”…(silence)… “Thank you. Okay I have to get ready for this class. I’ll see you when I get home in a few hours.” …(silence)… “I love you too. Bye.”

Lexa shifted in her seat and tried to look like she hadn’t been listening to every word of the girl’s conversation. She heard footsteps getting closer before she heard a small sound of surprise from the girl. 

“Oh uhm, Hi,” the blonde said as she moved down the aisle towards where Lexa was sitting. The brunette turned and for a moment was stunned at the appearance of an angel standing before her. The girl that was slowly closing the distance between the two of them was by far one of the most beautiful women Lexa had ever seen. She had long blonde hair that she let hang wildly across her shoulders accompanying the most beautiful, piercing blue eyes.

“I’m Clarke,” she stated as she closed the final distance between herself and Lexa and reached out her hand.

“Lexa,” the brunette forced out as she reached out to return the handshake.

“Did you happen to hear all of that? Should I be thoroughly embarrassed?” Clarke smiled as she drew her hand back to her side.

“Oh no…I…uhm…I was just reading,” Lexa stumbled out as she patted the closed English Lit book on her lap.

Clarke eyeballed the book for a second before looking back at the brunette and smirking, “Kind of hard to read a closed book isn’t it?”

Lexa blushed hard and then looked back up at Clarke smiling, “I wasn’t listening in on your conversation.”

“No big deal,” Clarke shrugged as she put her backpack on the floor and dropped into the seat next to Lexa. “Mind if I sit with you?”

“Of course not,” Lexa said as she shifted her bag over a bit to give the blonde leg room. “So art appreciation huh? You excited?” Lexa said in what was clearly a sarcastic tone.

Clarke looked genuinely confused for a second before realization struck her face, “Is this your designated art elective?” 

“Isn’t it yours?” Lexa asked.

“Oh no, I’m an art major. Just part of the program for me,” Clarke smiled proudly.

Lexa was never much for flirting but this girl was gorgeous, potentially gay or at the very least bisexual, and Lexa couldn’t help herself. “Well I may end up calling on your for tutoring lessons because I don’t know anything about art.”  
Clarke laughed and gave the brunette a winning smile. “I think that could definitely be arranged.”

 

(Present Day)

From that day forward, Lexa and Clarke became the best of friends. It was odd for Lexa because she was never one to make friends easily. She had a hard time with trust and opening herself up to people but the blonde made it so easy. Sometimes Lexa felt like she had no control over what she shared with Clarke and for once in her life, she didn’t mind that too much. They only shared the one class but they spent time studying together, had lunch together at least three times a week, and of course flirted shamelessly every opportunity they got. However, it never went any farther than flirting the entire first semester. This semester Lexa could feel things starting to change though. Lexa and Clarke had already had several coffee dates this year and had gotten even closer than the year before. Then at a frat party a few weeks ago, the two had almost drunkenly kissed. Things were a little awkward for a couple days after that but the two found their old rhythm quickly and everything went back to normal.  
Today Lexa was picking up the blonde for a “best friend date” as Clarke called it. Lexa had been extremely stressed as of late with her mother defending someone in a much publicized case so Clarke had decided they needed to let loose. She didn’t know what they were going to be doing but she didn’t care too much. She loved spending time with the carefree girl and this was probably exactly what she needed.

She pulled in front of Clarke’s apartment building right at noon. She picked up her phone and shot a text to let Clarke know she was out front. It only took another minute before she saw a flash of blonde hair jogging over to her jeep. Lexa let her Ray Bans drop down the bridge of her nose a little bit to look at Clarke over the top of them. The girl was wearing a pair of denim shorts that were almost dangerously short and a black Guns N Roses cutoff. She had on her favorite red Chuck Taylor’s and had tied the entire outfit together with a black snapback thrown loosely over her blonde locks. Lexa stared a little too long and drew a cocky smirk out of Clarke before she hopped into the passenger side of the jeep.

“Hey hot stuff,” she smiled as she pulled herself onto the tan, leather seat and reached for her seatbelt.

“Hey yourself,” Lexa smiled, “Where are we headed?”

“I don’t know. Just drive,” Clarke shrugged. 

“Clarkeee,” Lexa almost whined. “Give me some kind of direction.”

“No Lex. Today is about being relaxed and carefree. We don’t have a destination in mind. We’re just going to drive and have fun. Now put this bad boy in drive,” she stated as she softly patted the outside of the Jeep.

Never one to deny the blonde what she wanted, Lexa followed Clarke’s orders and pointed the vehicle north before turning onto an old back road. She ended up on a road she didn’t know but seemed like the perfect choice. It was a small, two lane back road with few houses. There were big fields on either side and trees scattered here and there dropping shade on them occasionally. About a mile into the road, Lexa felt herself starting to relax. She was enjoying the warm wind hitting her face as they drove at a comfortable thirty miles per hour down the old back road. She watched as Clarke reached over and grabbed the auxiliary cord so she could plug her phone up to the radio in the Jeep. She scrolled through for a couple minutes looking for the perfect song before apparently making a decision. She reached up and turned the radio up flashing a brilliant smile at Lexa before the guitar and drums started to pick up. Lexa found herself watching Clarke as closely as she could while still maintaining concentration on the road in front of her. 

The blonde was singing loudly to the song playing on the radio and had her hand out the passenger window, slowly moving it in a waving motion with the wind. She had her feet kicked up on Lexa’s dash and the brunette couldn’t even find it in herself to complain about the shoe prints she was undoubtedly leaving on the black dash of the Jeep. The girl looked completely at ease and Lexa thought it was quite possibly the most beautiful thing she had seen in her entire life. Clarke was absolutely flawless and Lexa couldn’t deny that her heart had started to race a little the moment the blonde got into the vehicle. 

They continued this way for many miles and through numerous songs without Clarke ever missing a single lyric. Lexa had become completely at ease. She had relaxed back into the driver’s seat with one hand on the steering wheel and the other arm outside the driver’s side window. She became completely absorbed in the catchy music coming from the speakers of the Jeep and even more so in Clarke singing and dancing beside her. She was so engrossed in her surroundings that she was a little startled when Clarke suddenly shouted.

“What?” Lexa asked the blonde as she had initially missed what she said.

“There’s a State Park coming up in a mile. Let’s drive through it.”

Lexa nodded and followed the signs leading into the state park. She drove through until she saw a sign reading “Boat Rentals” and an arrow pointing to the left. She followed the arrow thinking it was a nice day to lay by the lake for a little bit. Another mile and they were pulling into a small parking lot with very few cars. Lexa was glad that neither she nor Clarke had classes on Thursday allowing them to be here on a day where it wasn’t extremely busy. As Lexa was starting to unbuckle her seatbelt, she felt a hand on her chin. She was stunned for a moment as Clarke forced her to face her. It took her a solid minute to realize that Clarke was checking her hair and makeup in the reflection of Lexa’s expensive Ray Ban sunglasses. Lexa playfully huffed, pretending to be annoyed with Clarke but knowing full well, she not only didn’t mind, but she loved it.

Clarke smirked a little as she continued to try to adjust her hair under her hat. “Hey, don’t you huff at me. You’re the one who didn’t put visors in your fancy smancy Jeep when you fixed it up,” she laughed and moved closer to check her eye makeup.

Lexa tried not to audibly gulp. The combination of Clarke’s smirk and her closeness had the girl on edge. “I mean; it still needs work in places. Visors weren’t necessary to get it running and believe it or not, original visors for this year are pretty hard to find. Fun fact,” she joked as she regained her composure.

Clarke shrugged and finally turned away from Lexa and made a move to get out of the Jeep. They unloaded out of the vehicle and wandered down to the edge of the water. Clarke plopped down on the ground and patted the grass next to her encouraging Lexa to have a seat as well. The brunette lowered herself on the ground next to Clarke and stretched her legs out.

“How you feeling Lex?” Clarke asked as she laid back in the grass, flipping her snapback around where the bill was facing towards the front and putting her hands behind her head.

“I’m actually feeling a little bit better. I’m probably going to regret saying this but, you were right Clarke.”

“I usually am,” Clarke smiled and winked at the girl. “But seriously, I’m glad you’re feeling better. I’ve been a little worried about you.”

Lexa smiled too and fiddled with her hands as she took the time to sneak a look at the other girl’s long tanned legs. The silence stretched on for several minutes before Lexa turned to Clarke and shoved her playfully, “Why are you being so quiet?”

“I’m just enjoying the weather.”

Lexa narrowed her eyes at the younger girl, “You’re a terrible liar. You know that right?”

Clarke looked up at Lexa a little solemnly and it confused the brunette. Clarke had been so happy and carefree just a little bit ago. What could have changed? It was another moment before Clarke finally spoke, “You know you’re my best friend right?”

“Octavia might argue with you on that one,” Lexa smiled.

That comment forced a smile out of the girl, “A.) You can have more than one best friend and B.) you guys are different. O has been my best friend since high school. It feels like I’ve known her for a long time because I have you know? But with you, it feels like we’ve been friends for years and we only met less than a year ago.”

“I know what you mean,” Lexa nodded thoughtfully in response.

“I don’t know,” Clarke said before sitting up next to Lexa. She stopped talking again and flipped her hat back around towards the back. She had pulled her knees up towards her chest and had her elbows resting on them. She was nervously playing with her hands.

Lexa couldn’t help but notice how beautiful the blonde was at that moment. She had always found Clarke attractive but there was something about her today that Lexa couldn’t get enough of. It could be the outfit the girl was wearing, maybe it was the relaxing atmosphere of the day, or it could’ve just been how Clarke looked in that damn snap back. Either way, she was finding it harder and harder to keep her eyes from wandering. It felt weird to just reach out and touch the girl but for whatever reason, she felt the need to. She finally gave in to her urges and reached over laying one of her hands on top of Clarke’s.

The movement and soft touch seemed to break Clarke out of whatever trance she had stumbled into and she looked at Lexa’s hand on top of hers. Almost immediately Clarke moved her hand. Lexa felt a little silly at first because she thought Clarke was trying to move her hand away but she suddenly realized the blonde was just changing positions so she could entwine their fingers. The older girl wasn’t sure what to do. The girls had been friends for almost a year now but this wasn’t a normal occurrence. Actually, Lexa typically tried to avoid too much contact with Clarke because of how attracted she was to the girl. She loved the friendship they shared and she didn’t want to ruin it by making Clarke feel like she was hitting on her.

Lexa looked up from their hands and realized that Clarke was now looking at her. “What?” she asked with a slight smile.

“Can I tell you something and it not change the way you think about me?” Clarke finally asked. She was looking at Lexa very seriously. Blue eyes searching her face for something.

“Of course. You can tell me anything. You know that.”

Clarke nodded and reached up to Lexa’s face, gently pulling the sunglasses off of her face. She carefully folded the glasses up and then hung them on the neck of Lexa’s tank top as she had seen the brunette do numerous times before. When Lexa looked at her curiously, Clarke simply stated, “I want to be able to see your face when I say this.”

Lexa nodded but decided against saying anything. Clarke was extremely outgoing and always willing to speak her mind about just about anything. However, sometimes Clarke would get deep inside her own head. Sometimes her artsy mind couldn’t find the words to say what was rolling around in her head. Lexa gave her time to sort out the words as she sat patiently.

Finally the blonde began to speak, “Lex, you remember that frat party we went to a few months ago?”

Lexa nodded but still didn’t say anything. Clarke nodded back and continued, “Well, I really wanted to kiss you that night and not just because I was drunk. I wasn’t even that drunk when it happened. The only reason I told you I was, was because you kept apologizing and saying you were really drunk and I thought you didn’t want it so I told you I was too. If I’m being honest, I’ve had a crush on you since the first day I met you in our art appreciation class but you never made a move other than casual flirting so I thought you weren’t interested. Lately, though, I’ve felt like you could maybe be interested too and I decided that I just wanted to get all this off my chest. You’ve been a best friend to me and I am so thankful for you but I am interested in being more than that with you. I always tell you I think that we were meant to be best friends but really I think we were meant to be more than that. I want to be more than that.” Clarke stopped talking and just looked at Lexa for a minute. The brunette was completely speechless. After a few moments of nothing, Clarke smiled a little sadly and squeezed Lexa’s hand. “If I misread the signs and you don’t feel the same, it’s totally okay. I’m not very good at reading people sometimes and you are kind of a tough read in general. I just don’t want this to affect our friendship so if you’re not into me, we can pretend this never happened.” Clarke smiled reassuringly.

Lexa immediately started to shake her head. She wanted to interrupt the girl halfway through her rant but she couldn’t form the words. She still couldn’t. She was actually shocked into silence as the beautiful blonde in front of her just stared at her. This is what she had been hoping and praying for since the first day the two meant and now she was just sitting here staring at Clarke like a complete idiot. She could see the beginnings of embarrassment and doubt bubbling in the girl’s blue eyes and could feel her starting to loosen the grip she had on Lexa’s hand. Finally, her body caught up with her brain and she surged forward.

It took Clarke completely by surprise when Lexa’s lips met her own. She felt like her heart went from completely stopped to racing in the blink of an eye. She couldn’t catch her breath. Lexa was kissing her. Lexa. She felt Lexa pull back but left their foreheads pressed together. Their breath mixed between the two of them and Clarke couldn’t keep the smile off her lips as she felt her heart pounding in her chest. 

“So does that mean you feel the same?” she asked with a sly smile.

Lexa laughed and kissed her again, “What do you think?”

Clarke savored the kiss and followed with one of her own, “I’m really glad because I was acting all cool and stuff but if you turned me down, I probably would have jumped in that lake and swam away.”

Both girls started to laugh as Lexa pushed Clarke back onto the grass and hovered her face above the blonde’s, “Well I’m really glad that didn’t happen.”

“Me too,” Clarke replied as she leaned up to kiss the girl one more time, mostly just because she can now.

Lexa rolled over into the grass beside Clarke and stared dreamily up into the clear blue sky. She felt movement at her right hand and realized Clarke was entwining their fingers again. They laid there for a long time like that. Occasionally one would sneak a kiss from the other. They talked about pointless things and meaningful things. It was the perfect, relaxing day in Lexa’s mind and she didn’t want it to end. Unfortunately, it was getting late in the day and she could see the sun starting to drop out of the sky. They laid there, side by side, as the colors in the sky started to change to warm reds, oranges, and purples. Finally, when the sun had almost completely fallen behind the trees and it was starting to get too dark, the two girls made their way back to Lexa’s jeep. 

There was starting to be a slight chill in the air and Lexa pulled her leather jacket out of the backseat so Clarke could drape it over her shoulders. They rode home much in the same way they drove to the lake. Clarke had put the music back on and the two rode, listening to a mix of top radio hits and classic rock.

A while later, they were pulling into the parking lot of Clarke’s apartment complex. It was completely dark now and had gotten a little chilly. Lexa was slightly dreading having to drive home without the top on her Jeep. Clarke seemed to notice Lexa rubbing her arms to try to create warmth and frowned.

“Why don’t you come up?” Clarke asked.

“Aren’t you sick of me yet?” Lexa said jokingly but there was definitely a touch of insecurity laced in the question.

“Never,” the blonde simply stated before laying a soft kiss on Lexa’s lips. “Come up and watch a movie. It’s too cool to drive home without the top on your jeep. If you want to go home later you can…or you can stay. It’s up to you.” Clarke shot the girl a wink and turned on her heel heading into her apartment building.

Lexa stood stunned for just a minute while her body caught up with her mind before she jogged to catch up with Clarke just as she got to the door of her apartment building. She’d been waiting for this moment for months, there was no way she was riding home in a cold Jeep when she could be cuddled up with Clarke watching corny movies. Oh and kissing her of course. Lots of kissing.


	2. Update and Question for you guys

Hey everyone!  
I’ve got the creative bug biting again and I’m considering turning this into sort of a series. Maybe making this a series of one shots based on different song fics? How would you guys feel about that? Also how do you guys feel about me adding in some other femslash ships that I like, for example Sanvers? Should I include them all as different chapters in this fic or should I do Sanvers stories in a separate fic? Give me your opinions! And thank you so much for all the love. It means so much <3


	3. Wonderful Tonight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One-shot based on the song Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton. A Clexa date night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Okay, I talked before about making this a series of one shots all in the same universe. Basically, each chapter will be a chapter in their lives and will be loosely inspired by a song.
> 
> This one is a Clexa date night and is set to the song Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton. Prepare for all the fluffiness!
> 
> Lastly, please let me know what you think of this. Do you love it? Do you hate it? Are you impartial? How's the writing? 
> 
> Feel free to follow me on tumblr to ask me questions or giving me feedback more directly! @lexaneverleft

Lexa was sitting on the couch in Clarke and Octavia’s small two bedroom apartment. She was waiting on Clarke for their date and had been there waiting for the last 30 minutes. She kicked her feet up on the coffee table and opened up the Cosmo magazine that Octavia had undoubtedly left there. The aforementioned brunette fireball had run into the apartment about 15 minutes ago and locked herself in Clarke’s room stating she “had to approve all wardrobe choices” and Lexa hadn’t seen either girl since. She had known Clarke for over a year and a half now and the two had been dating for about 2 months, so by now she was used to this kind of thing. She learned the first week in that there was no way she would ever be able to tell the blonde no and combine that with the fact that no one has ever won an argument against Octavia, meant that Lexa sat quietly and tried not to complain too much about having to wait.

Lexa laid the magazine down and dropped her head against the back of the couch looking up towards the ceiling. She could hear murmurs coming from behind the closed door of Clarke’s bedroom and strained her ears to listen. She couldn’t hear what they were saying exactly but what she could hear was Clarke’s melodic laugh. It made Lexa smile as she closed her eyes still resting her head on the back of the couch.

It had been a long, rough week of classes. They were nearing midterms and her professors were being particularly difficult. Her History professor, for example, had her writing a 10 page research paper on an old western movie that she had absolutely no interest in. She normally really enjoyed history but her professor had assigned each of them a different western and Lexa had drawn the short straw of the longest, most boring movie of the bunch. She had tried to start the movie three different times and had yet to make it halfway through. It didn’t help that two of those times, she had tried to start it with Clarke who had distracted her and decided there were much better things to do together than watch a boring, old western. 

The brunette was so deep in thought that she didn’t hear the door to Clarke’s bedroom open or hear the blonde make her way around to the back of the couch and whisper in her ear, “You too tired to do anything tonight sleepy head?” 

Lexa jumped at the sound of Clarke’s voice and knocked the Cosmo magazine onto the floor. 

“A little on edge aren’t we?” Octavia snickered as she rounded to the front of the couch to pick up the magazine off the floor.

“I just didn’t hear you guys come out of the room,” Lexa said as the made a face at the brunette and turned around to face the beautiful blonde. When she finally was able to see Clarke fully, her jaw almost literally dropped. The blonde was wearing a red dress that hugged the top part of her body tightly and then flowed outward at her hips leaving it hanging loose around her legs. She also had on black heels that allowed her to nearly see eye to eye with Lexa in her dress shoes. Her long, blonde hair was done in loose curls that hung softly all around her angelic face. Lexa gawked long enough for Clarke to smirk and, unfortunately, for Octavia to notice. 

“You drooling there Lex?” she laughed as Lexa flipped her the bird and stood up from the couch to wrap her arms around Clarke and give her a kiss.

“How do I look?” Clarke asked shyly.

“Babe…you look…wonderful…” Lexa said in amazement.

“Wonderful?” Clarke laughed as she planted another kiss on Lexa’s lips. 

Lexa just nodded and smiled as she finally pulled away from the blonde. “So are you ready to go?”

“I think so, where are we going?” Clarke asked frowning at the distance the taller girl had put between them. She reached out quickly to grab the other girl’s hand and intertwine their fingers.

“Now that, my dear, is a surprise,” Lexa smirked as she pulled Clarke by her hand towards the door of the apartment. 

Clarke smiled and followed Lexa’s lead making their way out of the apartment. As they were headed out the door she made sure to bid farewell to her best friend, “Bye O! Thanks for helping me pick out what to wear! Don’t wait up!” She didn’t even give Octavia time to respond before she had closed the door to the apartment hearing Octavia laugh on the other side. 

The two women made their way down the stairs of Clarke’s building and entered the parking lot. It was a pretty night with just a slight chill to the air signaling that fall was quickly approaching. They walked hand in hand to Lexa’s jeep which now had the soft top on it and Lexa opened the door for Clarke to get in. Once settled in the Jeep, Lexa went to start the car before Clarke reached over and grabbed her hand, stopping her movement. Lexa looked up at the girl right before she put a hand on either side of the brunette’s face and pulled her in for a fiery kiss. They kissed for a second before both women pulled away a little out of breath. Clarke opened her eyes first and looked at Lexa who was smiling a little dumbly from the kiss and still had her eyes closed. She loved seeing Lexa like this, completely at ease. Not very many people got to see this and it thrilled her to no end that she was one of the ones who did. 

“What was that for?” the brunette asked finally opening her eyes.

“I just didn’t get to give you a good hello kiss today and I know you’ve been stressed and busy and I just really appreciate you making time for me tonight,” Clarke said matter of factly.

“I’ll always make time for you babe. You ready to find out where we’re going? I’m excited for you to see,” Lexa said reaching over and starting up the Jeep. 

Clarke simply nodded and settled in for the drive. Right after the car started moving, she had reached across and put her hand on Lexa’s right knee and was rubbing up and down her leg unconsciously drawing little patterns as she watched buildings go by. They drove about 15 minutes from campus before Lexa parked them in front of what looked to be an old warehouse. Clarke could tell it wasn’t abandoned by the number of cars parked in the vicinity but from the look of the outside of the building, she was feeling a bit overdressed. She looked over to Lexa who was checking her wallet for something. The tall girl had on a pair of black dress pants and a black button up which was buttoned all the way to the top. She had tied the outfit together with a charcoal grey vest. Her hair was pulled back into intricate braids that fell halfway down her back. She felt a little better about her outfit knowing that Lexa was dressed nice as well but was still unsure of what they were doing here.

Lexa just smiled at the obvious confusion on Clarke’s face as she tucked her wallet into the back pocket of her dress pants and kissed the girl on the cheek as she hopped out of the Jeep. She made her way around the vehicle and opened the door for Clarke, offering her a hand to help her get down. Clarke tried not to appear too anxious as they made their way around the side of the building and Lexa led them to a small door. She pulled the door opened and held it as Clarke entered.

As soon as they entered the large warehouse, everything looked very different from the outside of the building and Clarke looked around in shock. They had just walked past the threshold when they were greeted by a pretty woman in a floor length black dress who shook Lexa’s hand and introduced herself. 

“Ms. Woods, it’s so nice to see you again. How is your mother?” the woman asked politely.

“She’s well and she sends her regards. Thank you again for setting this up for me,” Lexa said squeezing Clarke’s hand to get the girl’s attention.

“No problem at all. Your mother said you were studying Criminal Justice at Polis University but she never mentioned that you were into art. We do a show here once every few months and a large charity auction around Christmas time and you’re always welcome. Just call me when you want to come to one and we’ll get you on the list,” Ms. Jackson said as she glanced at Clarke. 

“That sounds like a lot of fun. I’ll definitely hold you to that but actually Clarke here is the one who enjoys art more than I do. She’s actually a brilliant artist herself,” Lexa said beaming with pride. “Clarke, this is Sheila Jackson, head curator of The Monroe-Bryant Museum of Art and a friend of my mother’s. Sheila, this is…my friend…Clarke Griffin,” Lexa paused for a moment as she tried to decide how to describe Clarke to the woman. They hadn’t had the official “talk” yet and decided what they were to one another. They were just enjoying each other’s company and labels hadn’t been very important to either of them up until this point. Lexa watched as Clarke reached out and shook the woman’s hand and made some kind of comment about Lexa giving her more credit than she deserves.

Sheila shook her head and waved Clarke off, “Nonsense, if this girl has half the artistic eye that her mother does, then she knows good art even if she doesn’t know it herself.” Sheila heard someone call her name and waved at whoever it was calling her. “Okay ladies, I have to go wine and dine the wealthy,” she said with a wink. “Lexa it was wonderful to see you and Clarke it was very nice to meet you. Make sure you ladies catch up with me later and we’ll have a glass of wine and chat before you get out of here,” Sheila smiled at the girls one last time and then was gone.

Clarke and Lexa stood there for a second looking around. Clarke had stumbled back into amazement as she surveyed the room. There were bright lights hanging from the open ceilings which lit up the entire side of the warehouse. It was clear that someone had brought in false walls and placed them all around for the art to hang on. They couldn’t see everything from where they stood but Clarke could see paintings on the makeshift walls and a few statues placed on pedestals around the first room. She could see that there was a point where the walls met and shifted into a hallway leading into what Clarke assumed was another room with more art. There were people standing around looking at art and talking and drinking wine and mixed drinks. Everyone was dressed in beautiful dresses and suits with ties. There was soft music playing overhead, not loud enough to intrude on any conversations but loud enough to be heard.

After letting Clarke look around the room for a little Lexa started to lead her towards the crowd of people. “Well, what do you think?” Lexa asked nervously.

“How…what…wh…wow Lex,” was all that she could get out as she smiled brightly at the brunette.

“Well like I said, Sheila is friends with my mom and you said last semester that you had never been to a real gallery showing. I heard my mom talking to Sheila on the phone a couple weeks ago when I was visiting her and she was inviting my mom to this gallery but my mom couldn’t go because of a case she is working on so I mentioned that we might want to go and so she added me to the list, and here we are,” Lexa said in what felt like one long, run on sentence.

“This is really awesome,” Clarke said as she kissed Lexa on the cheek, “thank you.”

Lexa looked relieved as she and Clarke continued to walk towards the first painting on the nearest wall. They looked at that painting for a bit and then moved on to the next piece of art. They continued this pattern for the first hour or so, Clarke would lead them to a piece of art and would talk to Lexa absentmindedly about the colors and the shapes or the design of the sculpture and then they would move on to the next one. Lexa was enjoying Clarke in her element, watching the blonde’s eyes light up when she would find a piece of art that she really liked and hearing how her voice would switch into what Lexa could only describe as wonderment as she talked about the piece of art.

However, Lexa had noticed something else about 30 minutes ago and she wasn’t sure how she felt about it. Every time Lexa would take her eyes off of Clarke and look around the room, she would catch someone staring at the young blonde. It was mostly men, but once she even made eye contact with a woman in a knee length purple dress as she had just finished checking Clarke out. To her credit, the woman blushed a bit and quickly diverted her eyes but it had made Lexa feel strange none the less.  
She wasn’t so silly or inexperienced that she didn’t recognize the feelings she was having. Part of her was feeling some jealousy. Even though they hadn’t made it “official” yet, Lexa still saw Clarke as HER girl, not that Lexa felt like she owned Clarke. It definitely rubbed her the wrong way that someone was checking out the blonde. Lexa had always had a bit of a possessive and jealous streak. It had never caused any major issues in relationships and she wasn’t crazy jealous to the point her significant other couldn’t even have friends but she was definitely a monogamous person and she felt protective of the people in her life. It had even took her a little time to adjust to the strange relationship that Clarke and Octavia shared but she soon realized that two were as close as sisters and there was no threat there at all. 

The other feeling she was feeling was a sort of pride. It felt strange to Lexa but there was a small part of her that reveled in the fact that multiple people here couldn’t take their eyes off of Clarke’s lean body, bright blue eyes, and long, golden hair. The girl had her arm tightly tucked into Lexa’s as they looked at a piece of art and there was no doubt to anyone in the room that Clarke was with her tonight. She smiled as she looked back to the shorter girl who was oblivious to Lexa’s thoughts as she looked fondly at the painting in front of them. The brunette made the decision right there that she needed to sit Clarke down very soon and ask her to exclusively be her girlfriend. She wasn’t 100% sure that that’s what Clarke wanted but she did know that if it was, it would make her the happiest lesbian alive if she could walk into a room and know that Clarke was 110% her girl and that no matter what any of these people did, they couldn’t have her Clarke. 

Her mind must have ventured pretty far off again because she snapped out of her daze when Clarke nudged her shoulder and asked her, “Hey babe, do you feel alright?” 

Lexa smiled at Clarke and planted a quick kiss on her lips to make sure that it was clear to anyone in the room questioning, that Clarke was with her and then said, “I feel wonderful tonight.”

 

The two girls spent the rest of the night looking at art and meeting some of the many guests who had attended. At one point, they met back up with Shelia and she spent quite a bit of time introducing the girls to some of the “more important” guests. By the end of the night Clarke had met two gallery directors, a young investor who was interested in seeing some of her work, and multiple other artists from the local area. Lexa loved watching Clarke have fun and network but it was getting late and the lack of sleep she had been getting recently was starting to catch up to her. Her head had started pounding about twenty minutes ago and she was creeping up to the point of exhausted. She didn’t dare say anything to Clarke though. The girl was enjoying herself too much and she couldn’t find it in herself to pull the blonde away from such happiness.

Finally, around 11:30, Clarke stifled a yawn and whispered in Lexa’s ear asking if she was ready to go. Lexa responded, “Only if you are babe.”

Clarke nodded and the two started making their way out of the warehouse and to Lexa’s car only stopping to say their goodbyes to Sheila on the way out. As they were walking through the parking lot, Lexa held Clarke close to help keep her warm. She had become very quiet and apparently, Clarke had noticed.

“What’s wrong Lex?” Clarke asked in a concerned tone.

“Nothing is wrong really. I’ve got a bit of a headache though. Would you mind driving home?” the taller girl replied as she held the keys up towards Clarke. 

Clarke shook her head and took the keys from Lexa still sporting a concerned look. She knew Lexa must be feeling quite bad because she didn’t let hardly anyone drive her Jeep and definitely not frequently. Clarke and Lexa piled into the Jeep and the blonde pointed the Jeep in the direction of her apartment. She looked over at Lexa who had dropped her head against the back of the seat and was pinching the bridge of her nose with her eyes closed. It wasn’t long before they made it to the parking lot of Clarke’s apartment complex. Once they were parked Clarke made it clear that Lexa would be staying at her apartment tonight so she could keep an eye on her and “take care of her.”

“Baby, I really would love to but I really do have a headache,” Lexa said with a small smile.

Clarke just shoved the girl’s shoulder and laughed, “I mean really take care of you goober. I’ll get you some aspirin and I can massage your shoulders. I’m sure it’s just a stress headache.”

Lexa agreed and the two made their way upstairs. Once they made it upstairs and into the dark apartment, Clarke led Lexa straight to her bedroom trying not to be too loud to avoid waking Octavia up. She loved her best friend but the last thing Lexa needed with her headache was Octavia giving her a hard time and asking fifty questions about their date. The two made their way into Clarke’s bedroom and Clarke closed the door behind them, thankful that her room was on the opposite side of the apartment from Octavia’s.

“Sit down and I’ll get you something to sleep in and some aspirin,” Clarke ordered as she turned towards Lexa. 

Lexa did as instructed and sat down on the edge of Clarke’s bed while removing her shoes and unbuttoning her vest and shirt. Clarke was only gone for a few minutes and returned to the bedroom in a pair of men’s boxers and a tank top that clung to curvy upper body. She reached out to hand Lexa the glass of water and the two pills she had in her hand before turning back towards her dresser to dig out something for Lexa to wear to sleep. Lexa swallowed the two pills and drank the entire glass of water, feeling a bit dehydrated. The watched as Clarke cursed and finally pulled some clothes out of the bottom drawer she was digging in. The blonde held out a pair of loose basketball shorts and a tank top for Lexa. The taller girl took the offered clothes and pulled off her vest and dress shirt and dropped them on a chair in the corner of the room leaving her in only her black bra. She watched Clarke as the girl clearly was trying not to drool over the brunette’s tight abs. Lexa smirked before turning around, (more to tease Clarke than of embarrassment) unsnapping her bra, letting it drop to the ground, and then pulling the blank tank top over her head and down her body. Next, she dropped her dress pants and quickly put the basketball shorts on.  
Once she was dressed for bed, Lexa turned back to Clarke who was folding down the bed and plopped down. She sat on her bottom with her legs outstretched. She patted the bed between her legs signaling for Lexa to sit down between them. Lexa climbed onto the bed and sat between Clarke’s legs with her back to the girl. She let out an audible groan as she felt Clarke’s small hands come up to her shoulders and begin to massage, trying to relieve the tension held there. They did this in mostly silence for a few minutes, occasionally broken by a groan from Lexa and a giggle from Clarke.

“What did you think of the gallery?” Lexa finally asked.

“Lex, it was amazing. I had so much fun. Thank you so much for doing that for me.”

Lexa let her head drop forward when Clarke hit a particularly tight spot in her right shoulder and groaned before answering. “Of course, I was just hoping you would enjoy it. Plus, unintentionally it turned out to be a good networking opportunity for you,” the girl laughed.

Clarke laughed as well and then got quiet again. Lexa couldn’t see her face but she knew that the girl was thinking and so she let the comfortable silence consume them again. Finally, when Clarke could feel Lexa’s body starting to relax, she nudged the girl and encouraged her to move to the side of the bed and get under the covers. Clarke followed suit and got under the covers on her side of the bed facing Lexa. The only light that was on in the room was the small light on Clarke’s bedside table so Lexa reached over and clicked it off, filling the room with darkness. There was just enough light from the moon coming in from Clarke’s bedroom window that Lexa could see Clarke’s face. The girl was quiet and was using her left hand to push stray hairs out of Lexa’s face and behind her right ear. 

“Clarke,” Lexa started as she put her right hand on Clarke’s left hand that was playing with her hair to stop the blonde’s from moving, “I just want to tell you that you looked absolutely beautiful tonight. I mean, you always look beautiful but tonight…wow. There were people there who couldn’t keep their eyes off you and I was so proud to have you on my arm. But I also wanted to tell you that I am so proud of the way you handled yourself. That crowd can be a little intimidating even for me and you just meshed right in and it was really something to see.”

Clarke blushed a little bit but smiled at Lexa’s compliments and kissed the girl softly on the lips, pulling away but keeping their foreheads pressed together.

Lexa smiled and pulled the girl’s body even closer and said in barely a whisper, “I guess all in all, I just wanted to say that you were wonderful tonight.” 

Clarke pulled Lexa in for one more kiss and then tucked her head into Lexa’s chest reveling in the warmth and that is how the two fell asleep. Wrapped in each other’s arms, legs tangled together, and breath mixing. Clarke’s last thought as she fell off to sleep was that she couldn’t imagine herself feeling any more content or complete. There was only one word to describe it: Wonderful.


	4. Will You Be Mine?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lexa asks Clarke to officially be her girlfriend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello readers!
> 
> So I know I said each chapter in this story was going to be based around a song but I searched and searched and searched and just could not find one that I liked to fit this chapter. So that being said, this is just a little bonus chapter that's not set to any particular song. I hope you guys don't mind too much. Please let me know what you think!
> 
> Also, if you guys have songs that you think would go with a big moment in these two lives feel free to send it to me on here or through tumblr @lexaneverleft

It was early October which meant midterms were in full swing. Lexa and Clarke hadn’t been able to spend a lot of time together as they had both been spending a lot of time in their respective apartments cramming for tests and finishing up papers. Most of Lexa’s last minute studying wasn’t necessary because the girl was always prepared and typically the top of her class. She hadn’t always done well in school mostly because she skipped around so much as a kid but once Indra had taken her in and she had gotten some consistency in her life, her grades had skyrocketed. The girl had easily ended her high school career with a 4.0 GPA which had helped her earn some last-minute scholarships. All her papers had been turned in at least a week in advance and even though she felt like she was unprepared, everyone in her friends’ group knew that she would ace all her midterms.

Clarke was by no means a slacker but she had what Lexa liked to call “an artsy brain.” Clarke had no doubt she would do well on her midterms, she just was unsure if she would ever make it to them. She couldn’t find anything. Her notes, lost. Her first draft of her sociology paper, lost. Her car keys, lost. Most of the time, the girl couldn’t even find her pens and notebooks buried under her art supplies. The girls, Octavia, and Raven had tried studying together a few weeks ago but had quickly decided it wasn’t for them. Clarke’s disorganization drove Lexa crazy, Lexa’s stressing drove Clarke crazy, Raven’s ability to get utterly distracted by any beautiful creature that walked by drove Octavia crazy, and Octavia’s need to constantly talk drove everyone crazy. Needless to say, there was only one attempt at a group study session. 

Instead, the girls spent most of their time studying alone and it was driving Lexa mad. She had very much enjoyed her date with Clarke a couple weeks ago and had been looking for an opportunity for her and Clarke to discuss their relationship status. Were they friends? Were they more than friends? Friends with benefits? Absolutely not. Lexa wanted Clarke to be her girlfriend so bad she couldn’t stand it. She had been debating internally how to go about doing it. Should she just ask Clarke what they were? Should it be some big, ridiculous gesture? Lexa decided right off that the latter of the two wasn’t really her style and she didn’t think Clarke would be that into it. Sure, Clarke was outgoing and made friends fairly easily but the girl was surprisingly private and introverted. 

That line of thought is what had led her to her current position. Sat on the side of Raven’s bed with one foot on the floor and the other legged tucked under her. Raven was standing inside her closet comparing two shirts, taking a second to hold each one up to the jeans she had already picked out. 

“Raven, I could really use your help on this,” Lexa sighed, while waving to get the girl’s attention.

“And I could really use your help with my outfit. We all have needs Lex,” Raven responded stepping out of the closet and raising an eyebrow at Lexa. “So, me first, which of these shirts says, ‘I’m here to pick up hot chicks but if a hot enough dude asked me to dance, I’d be down?’” 

Lexa rolled her eyes and huffed, leaning back onto Raven’s headboard. She took a minute to evaluate the two shirts and then pointed towards the grey V-neck in the brunette’s right hand. 

“Hmm…really? I thought this one was super gay,” Raven said holding the shirt up to her upper body and looking at herself in the mirror.

“Well I’m ‘super gay’ so I don’t really know which one is going to attract Polis’ University’s finest man-children to you,” Lexa said grumpily.

Raven turned around and once again arched a perfect eyebrow at the brunette sitting on her bed. Lexa Woods didn’t pout but this is about as close as she came. “Who pissed in your cheerios?” 

Lexa groaned and threw her hands up, “I’m sorry Raven, I’m just really torn on what to do about this. I haven’t slept very much between midterms and going back and forth on what I should do with Clarke. I really need some good ol’ Reyes advice. You’re a pain in my ass but you give the best advice. Please?”

Raven smiled and sat down on the bed across from Lexa, “Flattery will get you everywhere Ms. Woods. Okay, tell me what you’re thinking.”

“Well, I know that I want Clarke to be my girlfriend. I think she feels the same way but I just don’t know how to go about it. Should I just sit her down and have a conversation about it? Do I just ask her flat out if she wants to be my girlfriend? Do I make a sign? How expensive is it to rent a plane and have someone do skywriting? Should I…”

“Woah, woah, woah…” Raven cut her off laughing. “You’re falling down a rabbit hole there Woods. Listen, from what I can tell, I think straightforward is your best bet. Just you and Clarke go sit somewhere and you tell her how you feel and ask her out. Simple and to the point.”

Lexa nodded and thought about what Raven had said, “When should I do it? Where should I do it?”

Raven hummed audibly in thought. She sat there a second in silence before her phone buzzed with a reminder. Raven checked her phone and then laughed out loud.

“What?” Lexa asked confused.

“This is like one of those cheesy ass stories when the protagonist is trying to come up with an answer to a problem and then the answer just falls in their lap,” Raven laughed again showing the phone notification to Lexa. It was a reminder for an event on campus tomorrow. “Mid-Terms Are Over! Bonfire Bash.” Lexa looked at Raven a little confused and Raven rolled her eyes at how dense her brilliant friend could sometimes be. “Lex, invite her to go to the bonfire tomorrow night. Octavia and I are going and you guys could come with. There’ll be music and everyone will be having fun and it’ll help you relax. When you feel ready, you can pull Clarke off to the side, somewhere quiet and ask her. It’s perfect.” 

Lexa seemed to ponder on the idea for several minutes before she finally nodded slowly, “I guess it would take some of the pressure off. Plus, if I chicken out at the last minute, nothing will seem off. It’ll just seem like a normal night out with you guys.”

Raven laughed and shoved the other brunette, “You’re not going to chicken out. Lexa “The Commander” Woods doesn’t chicken out.”

Lexa laughed at the nickname she had been given in the softball league her and Raven had been a part of in high school, “Okay, okay. I won’t chicken out. I’m going to ask Clarke to by my girlfriend tomorrow night.”

“There’s that Woods’ confidence,” Raven smiled slapping her friend on the knee, “Now can you PLEASE help me pick out an outfit for tonight? Octavia still hasn’t let me live down the fact that she got more numbers than I did the last time we went out.”

Lexa laughed at Raven and was thankful for the girl’s unyielding friendship and sense of humor, “You two are womanizers. You know that right?”

“Hey! At least two of those numbers were guys’ numbers!” Raven said in mock offense.

Lexa rolled her eyes and looked at the shirts that Raven was holding up again and went back and forth for several seconds. Finally, she pointed to the one on the right again, “I stand by my earlier statement, I like the ‘super gay’ grey one.”

“Of course, you do. Okay the grey one it is,” Raven said tossing the other shirt she was holding onto the chair on the far side of the room.

Lexa sat in silence for a while as Raven moved around the room picking out other random articles of clothes and straightening her hair. The whole time, she was going on and on about the last of her midterms and Octavia. The two had become friends after Clarke and Lexa met and introduced them one night at the bar. The girls had bonded over checking out women (and men) and their love of expensive bourbon. This semester, they shared an English Lit class and had been spending more and more time together. Octavia was always over at their apartment or Lexa and Raven would run into each other coming and going from Clarke’s apartment. Lexa and Clarke had their suspicions about a budding romance but both girls had repeatedly shut down that train of thought. 

Lexa finally interrupted Raven after her third round of, “Can you believe Octavia did (insert something that upset Raven or Raven found funny)?”

“So, Raven, when are you and Octavia just going to break and hook up?” Lexa said with a mischievous smile.

“Lexa, we’ve been through this before. Octavia isn’t my type,” Raven said matter-of-factly.

“So, smart, funny, and beautiful isn’t your type?”

“Nope.” Raven said popping the “P.”

“Mmhmm,” Lexa said rolling her eyes at her friend’s hard headedness. “I’m just saying, she’d give you a run for your money. Way better than some of those girls I’ve seen you bring home from the club.”

Raven popped up out of her chair, actively avoiding this conversation, “And you’ve worn out your welcome Woods. Time to go, I’ve got to get dressed.”

Lexa laughed at her friend knowing that she was only partially serious. She raised her hands in surrender and started making her way out of the room.

Raven stood by the door as her friend left the room and shut the door on her when she made a comment about having fun with “her future lover.”

The tall brunette just laughed at her friend and headed to her own room. She needed to study for her final midterm tomorrow and text Clarke. She was so nervous and excited when Clarke said yes that she almost knocked the candle she had burning off her desk. Now all she had to do was decide what to wear and then actually ask Clarke. 

 

The next day came with very little excitement for the most part. Lexa and Clarke both had early morning midterms so the two were able to meet for lunch before Clarke had to head off for her last midterm. Lexa was finished with all her midterms after her morning one so after lunch with Clarke she decided to hit the gym. With midterm stress, Lexa had let her gym dedication slip a bit and could already feel her abdominal muscles starting to weaken. She needed something to keep her mind off the night and a hard workout was just the ticket. Once she got her to her apartment she grabbed her gym bag and headed off to meet Anya at the gym. She had texted Anya on the way home asking if the girl was free for a workout session and as luck would have it, the older woman had just finished her shift at work so she agreed to meet the brunette.

Anya had always been like a big sister to Lexa, the closest thing to family she had ever known until Indra. The two met when Lexa was 7 years old and Anya was 13. Lexa had just moved into a new foster home and there were several foster kids in the home already, Anya was one of them. Lexa was a quiet kid which led to her getting ignored most of the time and bullied the rest of the time. There was another kid in the foster home at the time named Quint who made Lexa his target regularly. Finally, Anya got tired of seeing the sweet, quiet, girl get picked on and grew sick of Quint’s attitude. One day she pulled little Lexa to the side and told her that she needed to stop letting Quint push her around and taught her how embarrass the older boy. The next time that Quint started picking on Lexa and went to shove her into the wall, Lexa dodged the shove and tripped the boy sending him face first into their foster mother’s china hutch. Quint got in a lot of trouble for breaking one of the woman’s tea cups and Lexa remembers Anya winking at her as they stood listening to Quint get lectured. Lexa didn’t see Anya a year after she was moved out of that foster home but they met again a couple years down the road and Anya made sure to keep up with Lexa after that. She taught Lexa how to ride a bike, she taught Lexa how to fight, and even taught the young girl how to shoplift when she was 11 years old. 

Lexa remembered being heartbroken when Anya had gotten a poverty scholarship to attend Polis University. She was proud of her friend but she felt scared to be on her own for the first time in years. So, before Anya had went away, she had bought Lexa her first cell phone and promised to visit as often as possible and she made good on that promise. Every other weekend, the older girl would ride the bus back to their hometown and visit Lexa. They would study together, have boxing lessons, or just hangout and those were some of Lexa’s favorite memories. 

Fast forward some years and Lexa couldn’t be prouder of her pseudo sister. She hadn’t wasted her opportunity and used her scholarship to get a double degree in Criminal Justice and Children’s Psychology. She was now working for the local branch of the Department of Children’s Services helping kids just like her and Lexa. The job was tough and weighed on Anya’s mind and conscious a lot but she knew her work was important and even if she helped one kid out of a tough situation, it was worth it. These gym sessions with Lexa were exactly what she needed from time to time. She could talk to Lexa about what was going on and Lexa got it. They grew up in the same system and they understood things that others couldn’t. About once a week, the girls would meet up, work out, spar for a bit, and then get dinner and talk some more.

Today though, Lexa had opted to skip out on food. She had just finished a round on the heavy bag when a buzzing from her gym bag let her know it was time to head home and get ready. She parted with Anya, promising to make it up to her and headed home to shower.

A quick shower and an hour of debating what to wear later, Lexa had decided on casual. She had on tight jeans, her favorite combat boots, a simple red v neck shirt and her black leather jacket. She had her hair down and pulled to one side over her right shoulder. She surveyed herself in the mirror one more time before heading out to meet Clarke, Octavia, and Raven. 

By the time, she got to the quad, it was not quite dark. There were a few people scattered here and there but she figured more and more people would start to show up as it got darker and evening classes let out. There was a huge pile of wood and pallets stacked in the center of the quad and a group of big guys in matching jackets standing around it. She recognized a couple of them as football players. As she got closer she could hear them arguing over the most effective way to start a fire. Lexa rolled her eyes and continued to look around. Finally, she saw a flash of blonde between two brunette’s and recognized Clarke’s angelic laugh. She made her way over to the group who were standing with a few people Lexa didn’t recognize. Clarke smiled when she saw Lexa approaching and immediately stole a kiss from the taller girl’s lips once she got close enough. A wolf whistle earned Raven a slap on the arm from Clarke and caused everyone to laugh.

Clarke noticed the confusion and slight tension in Lexa regarding the new people so she took it upon herself to introduce everyone. Lexa learned that the two slightly nerdy looking boys talking to Raven about a new prototype for some rocket were named Monty and Jasper and that they shared engineering classes with Raven. The young blonde who stood off from that group trying to get involved in the conversation but quickly getting lost was Monty’s girlfriend, Harper. There were two other girls standing a bit to themselves and chatting happily. Clarke explained that they were from her algebra class and their names were Niylah and Monroe. 

There was also a tall, shaggy headed, boy talking to Octavia in what looked like annoyed, hushed tones and it made Lexa a little uneasy for some reason. He looked familiar to Lexa but she couldn’t place it. There was a woman standing behind him with her arms crossed a little scowl on her face. “Is everything okay with O?” she asked curious as to what was going on.

Clarke looked towards the three and waved it off, “Oh yeah, that’s Octavia’s brother Bellamy and the ball of sunshine with him is his on and off girlfriend Echo. He’s never not a pain in the ass. He means well and he loves Octavia but he is ridiculously overprotective and a bit judgmental of every decision O makes, even though he has NO right. Those in glass houses you know?” Clarke said taking a sip of her water.

Lexa nodded and tried to not actively watch on as Octavia and Bellamy’s conversation seemed to settle down a bit. Octavia had put her hands on her hips and was staring her brother down and his shoulders seemed to slump a bit in defeat. She wondered what they were at it about but decided it was none of her business. Lexa returned her focus to the blonde beauty standing next to her who had slipped into the conversation with Niylah and Monroe. They were apparently discussing how long it would take the group of football players to get the bonfire lit. Soon Raven, Monty, and Jasper had joined the conversation explaining why engineers would have already had the bonfire lit.   
Forty-five minutes later, Niylah had won the bet as to how long it would take to get the bonfire going. It took all six football players and two baseball players but the fire was roaring, music was playing and a lot more people had shown up. Added to their group was Bellamy’s friend Murphy and his girlfriend Emori, and a rather large gentleman named Lincoln whom Lexa recognized from her calculus class. He was chatting up Octavia and Lexa noticed Raven throwing eye daggers at him more than once.

As the night went on, the crowd got even larger and people had begun to pair off and dance. Lexa spotted Lincoln and Octavia dancing while close by Raven had started to grind on Niylah. Lexa and Clarke had started a slow rhythm themselves. Clarke had her back to Lexa’s front and the taller girl was holding her hips. She would swing her hips back and forth and then roll her body into the brunette to the beat of the music. Occasionally, Lexa would drop her head to place a sweet kiss on Clarke’s neck and the girl would hum in response. They continued like this for a while, Lexa loving the way their bodies fit together.

It was getting later in the night and Lexa was a little anxious. She wanted to do this before it was too late and they were going home. She looked around and made eye contact who pointed at her watch and then looked at Lexa expectantly. She unintentionally groaned out loud at her friend’s antics which caught Clarke’s attention. Clarke must have misinterpreted the groan as a reaction to her dancing though and huskily whispered in Lexa’s ear, “You doing okay there babe?”

Lexa quickly nodded and pulled Clarke closer before her confidence could waiver, whispering in her ear, “Can we go find someplace quiet for a bit?”

The blonde just nodded as Lexa had already started to lead her away from the fire and all the people around it. As they put more distance between themselves and the fire, the temperature started to drop a bit. It was not uncomfortably cold, but it was cool enough away from the fire that Lexa pulled Clarke tighter into her body as they walked. They walked across the quad, up the stairs to the cafeteria and over to the small picnic table where they regularly shared their lunch. Lexa sat down on the bench expecting Clarke to sit next to her. What she didn’t expect was Clarke in her lap and her lips on hers before she knew what was going on.

Lexa pulled Clarke closer and deepened the kiss. The could feel the girl’s hands in her hair and she gripped her lower back tighter, pulling the smaller girl into her. The heated make out session lasted several minutes before Lexa felt a cold hand sneaking under her shirt and resting on her abs and it brought her back to reality. She reluctantly broke the kiss and attempted to put some distance between her and Clarke. It was near impossible to keep her hands off the girl and she needed to get this out.

“Clarke, we have to stop for a second. I need to ask you something,” Lexa stated.

Clarke looked confused but nodded for Lexa to go on, “what’s going on Lex?”

Lexa braced herself and began talking, “Clarke, I….uhm…well I...Shit, I’m one of the most well-read students at this school and when I’m around you, my brain just turns to mush.” Lexa looked frustrated with herself and Clarke reached out to touch her knee and made eye contact with the brunette, smiling softly. 

Lexa used this as a confidence boost and continued on, “Well, I just wanted you to know that I’ve really enjoyed what we’ve been doing the last couple months. The hanging out and the dates and the sex. God, the sex.”

Clarke blushed and smiled at Lexa squeezing her knee.

Lexa smiled back and continued, “And I realized on our last date that I want to keep doing that. Like, I don’t ever want to stop doing those things with you. I know we haven’t talked about it and I didn’t really know where we were at so I was wondering if you would, maybe, consider doing me the honor of being my girlfriend. Like officially, official. The title, letterman jackets, sock-hop dance, all that cheesy stuff.” 

Clarke laughed at Lexa’s goofiness and reached over to pull her in for a fiery kiss. The two kissed for a minute before it got softer and then stopped, leaving just their noses touching. “Of course, I’ll be your girlfriend,” she smiled and pecked the girls lips again.

Lexa felt like her heart was literally going to explode. She wanted to jump on top of the picnic table they were sitting at and dance and scream. It took everything in her to not at least do a victory fist pump but she didn’t. She simply kissed Clarke again and again, smiling through each one. They soon had returned to their heated make out session and decided that they weren’t getting exactly what they wanted on the picnic table bench. They eventually, made their way back over to the bonfire to let Raven and Octavia know they were headed home for the night, warning Octavia that Lexa was staying at their apartment tonight. Raven high fived Lexa and winked at her while making some kind of inappropriate comment that earned her yet another slap on the arm from Clarke. 

After the two new girlfriends had walked off Raven and Octavia did a celebratory high five and toasted their friend’s new “official” relationship status. After taking a shot of “water” which was actually vodka that Raven had snuck in, Octavia asked if she minded if she stayed over at Raven and Lexa’s place tonight to avoid whatever was happening in her apartment. Raven, of course, agreed wanting to spare her friend the trauma of once again hearing her best friend have sex. She understood the struggle of having a roommate with a high libido in love.

Clarke and Lexa made their way back to Clarke’s apartment quicker than they ever had. They were up the stairs and through the door in a matter of minutes, locking the door behind them. Lexa had pinned Clarke to the door as soon as they entered the apartment heatedly kissing her over and over. Clarke dropped her head against the door and savored the kisses Lexa was placing all over her neck and collarbones. Clarke could sense something different in Lexa, the girl was kissing her more intensely, more frantically. 

Clarke smiled as the panted out, “What’s got into you?”

Lexa stopped her worshipping of Clarke’s neck and move back up to her mouth where she kissed her hard and the softly right after. “I just want to show my girlfriend a good time,” she said with a wink and then picked the smaller girl up and carried her towards the blonde’s room and kicked the door shut behind them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really do hope you guys enjoyed this even though it wasn't set to a song. I wanted to establish some backstory for Anya and Lexa as well as give Raven and Lexa some brotp time. I'm not sure where I'm going with relationships other than Clarke and Lexa so feel free to send suggestions myw ay


	5. Mad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke and Lexa's first big fight set to Mad by Ne-Yo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all!!!! I have been working like crazy on this chapter and I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I feel like fights are hard to write because my pet peeve is when fights are resolved too quickly in fics but as I reached 8 pages, Istarted to feel like it was dragging on. So anyways, here it is. This chapter is about their first big fight and the song it is based on is Mad by Ne-Yo. You will find that some of these one shots go exactly with the song and some are just loose translations.  
> Finally, I upped the rating on this fic just because of the language in this chapter and the potential for light smut later on down the road. Don't know if it's going to happen but it could.

It was nearing 7 o clock at night on a Sunday and Lexa was not in her normal Sunday evening state of mind.  Typically, Sunday’s were reserved for catching up on homework and relaxing time with Clarke.  The two girls would usually watch movies and cuddle at Clarke’s apartment or sit on the floor in Lexa’s living room working on papers together.  Tonight, however, was not a good night for the girls.

Lexa stood on one side of the living room with her back to the wall.  She was wearing a pair of basketball shorts and a t-shirt and her hair was pulled back in a ponytail.  She was also sporting a busted lip and was holding an ice pack to her right hand.  She had her head leaned back against the wall and sighed in frustration as she looked over to Clarke.

On the opposite side of the room, Clarke sat on the couch with her legs bent and her chin on her knees.  The girl was staring off into space and had light tear streaks from her mascara had ran down her cheeks.  She was staring off into space, occasionally clenching her jaw muscles. 

It had been quiet for too long and Lexa was starting to get unnerved.  She dropped her head back against the wall and sighed as she thought back to the day’s events and where their perfect Sunday went wrong.

 

**_Flashback_ **

_Lexa Woods had been fighting her whole life.  Since the first time that Anya taught her how to defend herself, Lexa had been fighting.  Now, don’t get her wrong, the girl was pretty good at talking herself out of a heated situation but if it came down to it, she would always defend herself and those she loved.  Unfortunately, there were certain things that made her lose her cool very quickly.  For example, threatening the people she cared about._

_The day had started off fairly normal, Lexa had stayed the night at Clarke’s apartment and woke up around 10am to an empty bed.  She stretched and made her way to the living room finding Clarke and Octavia each stretched out on a piece of furniture with a bowl of cereal in their hands.  She was greeted by both girls and sat down next to Clarke stealing a few bites of the girl’s Cocoa Puffs.  She focused her attention in on the television where some ridiculous cartoon was playing._  
  


_“What are you guys watching?” she said tucking her legs underneath her and leaning back on the couch._

_“Rocco’s Modern Life,” Octavia said around a mouth full of Lucky Charms._

_“It looks kind of dumb. What’s it about?” she said as she squinted her eyes at whatever the…dog, rat, thing…was doing on the television._

_She was startled when she heard a spoon drop and hit a glass bowl and Octavia whipped around to make eye contact with her, “You’ve never seen Rocco’s Modern Life!?”_

_Lexa just shook her head and looked over at Clarke who was smirking slightly behind her bowl of cereal._

_“What about Doug?” Octavia asks._

_Lexa shakes her head._

_“Hey Arnold?”_

_Lexa shakes her head again._

_“Ahh! Real Monsters?...Animaniacs?...Ren and Stimpy?...Pinky and the Brain!?”_

_Lexa shook her head each time as Octavia got more and more upset._

_“I didn’t get to watch much television growing up,” Lexa said with a shrug._

_Octavia focused her attention on Clarke and pointed at Lexa, “You have much to teach this young padawan, master.”_

_“Star Wars! I get that reference!” Lexa said with clear excitement in her voice._

_Clarke and Octavia both nodded and laughed as Clarke pecked Lexa on the cheek._

_It was true that Lexa’s pop culture knowledge was a bit lacking and she caught a lot of shit for it from the other girls but she didn’t mind.  She spent most of her childhood reading or just hanging out with Anya learning about life.  She never watched television or went to the movies much so Raven had started in high school trying to educate the brunette about pop culture.  Once they met Clarke and Octavia, it was easy for Raven to convince the other two to join her cause._

_“I do at that.  The cartoons will come, but we have to get you through Harry Potter first,” Clarke said nudging Lexa.  She had been mentioning to the girl for a while that, that particular series was next on her list._

_The rest of the morning went by in a relaxed manner.  The three girls sat on the couches for a few hours watching cartoons and talking until afternoon rolled around and Raven showed up.  She knocked twice on the door and upon hearing someone yell “Come in,” she made her way into the apartment.  She was dressed in a tank top and gym shorts and her hair was pulled back in a ponytail.  She jumped over the back of the couch where Lexa and Clarke were sitting and plopped down next to the brunette, throwing her arm across the back of the couch._

_“What’s up ladies?” she said with a genuine smile._

_“Just watching cartoons,” Clarke said._

_“Word! Oh! Hey Arnold! I love this show, don’t you football head?” Raven laughed nudging Lexa._

_Lexa looked back at Raven confused.  “What?”_

_Raven rolled her eyes and laughed, “Of course you’ve never seen Hey Arnold.  Why am I not surprised?  Anyways I’m trying to go enjoy the weather and there’s a group of people on the quad playing Frisbee and a pickup game of soccer.  You ladies want to go down with me?  It’s too pretty to be inside.”_

_Octavia was immediately game and jumped off her chair to go change clothes saying something about hoping Lincoln was there._

_Raven rolled her eyes and scoffed and then looked over to the other two girls sitting next to her.  They were looking at one another and seemed to be having a silent conversation.  “Oh come on,” Raven said, “You guys can turn Clarke’s room into a sex dungeon anytime! Lexa let’s go show the boys the ol’ Woods-Reyes magic.  What do you say?”_

_Clarke nodded at Lexa and smiled, encouraging the girl to say yes.  She knew Lexa was competitive and would really want to go play even though she would not say so to Clarke.  To tell the truth, Clarke could use the sun and fresh air, she had been stuck inside studying all week and they weren’t going to have very many pretty days left in the year as Halloween was quickly approaching._

_“Let’s do it!” Lexa stated hopping off the couch and pulling Clarke with her.  She shared a quick high five with Raven and they went to change into something more appropriate for the weather._

_It took them a while to get out of the apartment but finally they had and were now walking up to the quad.  Clarke look around and could see quite a few people broken off into groups participating in different activities.  There was a group of guys and girls throwing around a Frisbee and laughing loudly.  There was a small group of people holding a group study session under a nearby tree.  A group of boys were loudly kicking a soccer ball around and picking teams for a game.  Finally, Clarke spotted another group of people who were laid out on towels in the grass enjoying the sun.  She spotted Niylah and Monroe in that group and kissed Lexa on the cheek before walking over to join her friends.  Niylah and Monroe greeted Clarke happily as she strolled over and flopped down on the grass next to them._

_Octavia immediately spied Lincoln in the group of people tossing the frisbee and waved.  He smiled brightly and waved her over and she sped off towards the side of the quad they were on.  Lexa laughed as she watched Octavia run directly to Lincoln and playfully punch him on the arm, clearly flirting.  She only laughed a little harder when she noticed Raven rolling her eyes so hard, she thought they were going to roll out of her head.  Lexa nudged Raven and pointed to the soccer game.  Never one to miss out on a competition of any kind, Raven nodded and the two girls jogged over to where they were now picking teams._

_The soccer group consisted of mostly guys.  There was only one other girl in the group who was a bit standoffish.  She stood beside a buff, tall guy with long hair pulled back into a tight bun.  There were two guys standing in the middle of the group talking loudly about the rules.  It took a little bit but they eventually decided they would break up into three teams of four and play round robin style.  There was a short argument over who was going to be on which team.  Each of the two guys who were making up the rules were chose as captains and the big guy with the bun was chosen as the third captain.  Each captain took turns calling who they wanted on their team and as they called their names out, Lexa learned who each person was._

_Lexa learned that the guy with the bun’s name was Roan.  He chose the girl who was standing next to him, Ontari, a blonde, floppy haired guy named Riley, and a skinny brunette guy named Atom._

_The taller mixed guy’s name was Nathan but everyone called him Miller.  He picked a good-looking guy named Bryan who Lexa later found out was his boyfriend, a large burly guy named Nyko, and he also chose Lexa._

_Finally, the last captain to choose was a small cocky guy with shoulder length brown hair, named Finn.  Lexa didn’t care for the guy’s attitude at all.  Finn chose Raven first, awkwardly winking at the girl as she jogged over to where he stood.  Lexa chuckled under her breath thinking that there was no way in hell that little prick had a shot with Raven.  He then chose a slightly dorky looking guy named Jackson and finally, a tall, quiet guy with very long hair named Illian._

_After the teams were picked, each team stepped into its own area and discussed strategy.  Roan’s team and Finn’s team would be playing first so Miller’s team, including Lexa, stood off to the side to give them room to play.  The game started off friendly enough with Roan’s team scoring a goal early.  The ball was going back and forth and up and down the field quickly.  At one point, the ball was passed to Riley who dribbled back and forth in front of himself and then went to make a run up the field but was tackled hard by Finn.  Everyone shouted and Finn shrugged his shoulders, helping Riley up off the ground._

_“My bad man,” Finn said in that cocky attitude._

_The game kept going for about 30 minutes and Lexa kept a close eye on Finn.  She saw him take a couple more cheap shots at Riley especially and even once at Ontari.  Lexa was getting irritated at the boy’s antics and found herself itching for a chance to get a shot at him._

_After the first game ended, Finn’s team came out victorious much to Lexa’s chagrin and the group decided to take a 15-minute break before they started the next game.  Lexa rolled her eyes as she watched Finn trying to chat up Raven who was clearly checking out Ontari.  The short, fit girl who had taken her shirt off and was standing next to Roan drinking water in now just a sports bra.  Lexa decided she would go talk to Clarke before it was her turn to play.  She ran over to where Clarke was sat on the ground laughing with Niylah and Monroe.  She greeted the two girls and sat down next to Clarke.  They all chatted for a few minutes but Lexa felt the whole time like someone was burning a hole in her head from staring.  She glanced over once to see Finn watching every move her and Clarke made.  Assuming, the guy was just a judgmental prick, Lexa made sure to kiss Clarke a little harder than necessary right on the lips before returning to the soccer group._

_Once the game started up between Miller’s team and Finn’s team, things got pretty serious.  It started with Raven and Lexa versus one another and that’s never a good thing.  The two were best friends but fiercely competitive with one another and too evenly matched.  Raven was a better soccer player, playing the sport for the better part of her life but Lexa was an outstanding athlete.  Raven couldn’t outrun or outmaneuver Lexa just like Lexa couldn’t dribble or pull any moves to get past Raven’s strong defense._

_This didn’t last long before there was some readjusting.  Everyone shuffled positions and, unfortunately, Lexa ended up face to face with Finn.  They both huffed as they realized the situation and looked around hoping someone would switch things up again.  Realizing that no one really cared, they both resigned to the fact they were going to have to play against one another._

_It took no time for the game to get much too heated.  Finn tried early on to tackle Lexa much like he had Riley but it didn’t work.  Lexa moved just in time and Finn ended up face first in the grass earning a laugh from everyone around.  A little later Lexa received a beautiful pass from Nyko and performed a stunning move to beat Finn.  She then had an easy shot at the goal which she sank putting her team up 2-0.  Finn grew increasingly frustrated and petulant each time Lexa outplayed him._

_The whole situation came to a head when Lexa received a pass from Miller and was dribbling up the field.  Finn ran her down and went in hard for the tackle, not missing this time.  He hit Lexa hard and they both tumbled to the ground.  There were some shouts of outrage, including Raven who ran up to check on Lexa.  Before she could even make it to the taller girl, however, she was up on her feet and pulling Finn up by the collar of his shirt._

_“What the fuck do you think you’re doing man!?” Lexa said roughly as she yanked the boy up._

_“Get your hands off me,” Finn yelled in return as he slapped Lexa’s hands away._

_“Oh that’s fantastic. You weren’t worried about physical contact when you just ran through me like a freight train!” Lexa shouted back._

_Raven did not like where this was going at all.  She needed to end this interaction.  Finn did not want to piss Lexa off._

_“Oh, don’t be such a pussy,” Finn said angrily, waving Lexa’s comment off. “I didn’t hit you that hard, you just can’t take a fair tackle.”_

_“A fair tackle my ass!” shouted Lexa getting closer to the boy._

_By this time, their argument had gained the attention of the group of people sunbathing and the people studying under the tree._

_Clarke realized what was going on a little too late. “Shit…shit, shit, shit,” she said as jumped off the ground, running to the group.  She arrived right as Lexa stepped even closer to Finn and scoffed._

_“Your ass is right. Your ass I’m going to stomp into the ground if you ever try to run through me like that again.  We’re trying to have fun here and you’re going to get somebody hurt!” Lexa said stepping so close she was nearly nose to nose with the boy._

_To his credit, as intimidating as Lexa was, Finn never backed down.  He stepped impossibly closer and said in a mocking tone, “I’d like to see you try.”_

_Fire’s blazed in Lexa’s green eyes right as a flash of blonde broke between them and pushed the two apart.  It took her a second to realize Clarke was standing in front of her, pleading with her bright blue eyes to back off.  “Lexa please, let it go,” the shorter girl said as she put a hand on Lexa’s left bicep._

_“You should probably listen to your girlfriend there Lexa,” Finn said with a smirk pointing at Lexa, “I wouldn’t want to have to hit a woman and I’d hate to mess up the face of Clarke’s newest lapdog.”_

_“Quit being such a prick Finn,” Clarke said meanly to the boy shoving his finger out of her face.  Lexa was caught off guard from the tone in Clarke’s voice.  So many questions popped into her mind.  How did Clarke know Finn? How did Finn know Clarke? Clarke’s newest lapdog?_

_“Go fuck yourself Griffin, although I’m sure you have to do that a lot because I doubt Amazon Warrior here can make you scream like I did,” Finn said as he shoved Clarke’s hand back.  This action broke Lexa from her thoughts and something inside of her snapped.  As if the words weren’t enough, the thought of him touching Clarke, watching him shove her hand out of the way broke every restraint Lexa had._

_Raven saw the fire rise in Lexa’s eyes too late and was not fast enough to stop what happened next.  Lexa ducked around Clarke and took a hard swing at Finn, connecting hard with the boy’s jaw.  It caused him to stumble backwards and he had just gained his footing when Lexa connected again with her right hand.  The boy reacted faster this time after the hit and was able to swing back, barely connecting with Lexa’s jaw and busting her lip open.  Lexa laughed, she laughed, and then shoved the boy backwards hard.  Stumbling again the boy did his best to get his hands up to block the next swing but with little luck.  Lexa grabbed the boy’s shirt with her left hand and connected twice more with her right in the blink of an eye.  Everyone stood in astonishment for a moment while they watched Finn fall to the ground and Lexa landing on top of him connecting once with his ribs with her left fist and then another time in the face with her right.  Finn had given up trying to fight back and had his hands and arms over his face trying to protect his face from the onslaught of punches Lexa was throwing at him.  She connected several more times with his ribs and face before Nyko and Raven both jumped into action.  Each of them grabbing one of Lexa’s arms and pulling her off Finn._

_Finn was still lying on the ground with his arms covering his face.  When he finally uncovered his face, everyone could see the damage Lexa had done.  His nose was bloody and his lips busted open with blood oozing from both.  His left eye was already starting to bruise badly.  Illian stepped over to help Finn up as no one else had made a move too.  Just as Finn made it to his feet, Lexa finally broke free of Raven and Nyko’s hold.  She pointed hard at Finn and glared.  “You will never talk to her again and you will definitely never put her hands on her again.  Do you fucking understand me? You attack her, verbally or physically, you attack me.  You got that!?” Lexa said firmly._

_Finn just barely nodded and then spit some blood out of his mouth as Illian helped him out of the quad and towards his apartment._

_Lexa looked towards Clarke who had an unreadable look on her face and then looked away and started to leave the quad.  Clarke finally caught up with the girl as she crossed the street headed towards Clarke’s apartment.   Lexa didn’t really know why she was going to Clarke’s apartment. She was confused.  She was upset.  She was angry and Clarke is who she went to when she needed to talk or vent.  When she felt the blonde jog up beside her, she didn’t bother looking over and kept walking.  The two made it as far as the parking lot walking side by side before Clarke broke the silence._

_“What the hell did you do that for Lexa?” Clarke asked looking at the brunette._

_Lexa whipped her head around to look at the blonde in shock, “What did I…are you…you know what? No, I’m not doing this here.”_

_“Then come upstairs because I want to talk about this,” Clarke said leading the way to her apartment._

_They barely made it through the door before Clarke whipped around on Lexa again.  “What the hell was that?”_

_“What did it look like Clarke?” Lexa said with an eye roll._

_Her sarcasm only pissed Clarke off more.  “Well it looked like you reacted like a teenage boy with a temper tantrum and beat the shit out of Finn.”_

_“Who the fuck is Finn to you?!” Lexa yelled the question that had been playing through her mind since Finn’s earlier comment._

_The combination of the question and the yelling put Clarke back on her heels.  Lexa had never raised her voice at Clarke or even in front of Clarke for that matter.  Clarke and Lexa had never fought.  Sure, they had bickered over what to watch on television or who got the last Oreo in the pack but they had never had a real fight._

_“Well?” Lexa said growing frustrated with Clarke’s silence._

_“Finn is an ex, Lexa.  We used to date,” Clarke sighed._

_“Why wouldn’t you tell me that?” Lexa said in disbelief.  Her anger was not dissipating.  She could feel her blood pressure rising again and felt like her heartbeat was in her head._

_“Why does it matter?” Clarke responded feeling her own anger start to build._

_“It fucking matters Clarke,” Lexa retorted popping the “K’ in Clarke’s name hard._

_“It doesn’t matter to me and it shouldn’t matter to you,” Clarke said hotly, “we dated for a very brief time at the beginning of freshman year.  Before we even met.  We went on a few dates, we didn’t get along and that was it.  Do I have to point out every person I’ve ever dated to you?”_

_Lexa was losing control of her anger and she knew she needed to back off but she was still fuming from the fight with Finn and she was feeling embarrassed.  “No, I’d just like to know when I’m hanging out with someone you’ve fucked.  Particularly if that person is a grade A asshole like Finn!”_

_The harsh words hurt Clarke and she reeled back from Lexa a bit, putting some distance between the two of them.  “Ouch,” she said quietly._

_“Listen Clarke, I’m sorry, that came out worse than it should have but I deserve to know things like that.  Do you know how embarrassing that was for me?  I had no idea that I was hanging out and having a good ol’ time with my girlfriend’s ex.”_

_“Embarrassing for you?” Clarke asked.  “I just stood and watched my intelligent, adult girlfriend lose her mind and beat the absolute shit out of my ex in front of at least 20 people!  What if Finn files charges Lexa?”_

_“Let him,” Lexa growled._

_“Oh, let him?  Let him file assault charges against you?” Clarke asked sarcastically.  “Sure, that’ll work out well.  You’ll get arrested and kicked out of school and you won’t be able to follow the career path you want, not to mention leaving me here without you.  Yeah, that would be great.”  The blonde was waving her hands around and pacing back and forth across the living room._

_Lexa chose not to respond right off and just watched Clarke walk back and forth._

_“God, Lexa.  Why couldn’t you just keep your cool? Let it go like I asked you too!?”_

_“Because,” Lexa simply responded dropping her head._

_“Because?” Clarke repeated back.  “You’re going to have to come up with a better reason than that.”_

_Lexa just shook her head.  She didn’t want to go down this road.  She was tired of fighting with Clarke already.  Her head hurt from yelling and arguing, her lip hurt from the one shot Finn had landed, and her hand hurt from the multitude of blows she had landed on Finn’s face.  She could see her knuckles already starting to bruise and it was getting harder to make a fist.  She didn’t want to continue this fight with Clarke.  She was still angry but she was trying as hard as she could to not lash back out at Clarke._

_“Why Lexa?” Clarke prodded again stepping closer to Lexa and invading the girl’s space._

_The small string that was holding Lexa’s temper broke for the third time as she suddenly stood up from the couch looking down at Clarke, “Because he put his fucking hands on you.  Because of what he said.  Because I can’t stand the thought of that ignorant little prick anywhere near you, let alone putting his hands on you.  I saw him slap your hand away and something snapped inside of me and I couldn’t not go after him.  I had no restraint.  And all I could think about as I hit him was him slapping you, and you in bed with him, and then when I tackled him to the ground it hit me that you hadn’t told me that you guys were together and I was so angry at you Clarke.  I felt pissed off and embarrassed and so I just kept hitting him because it was the only thing that made sense.”  Lexa’s face was red from yelling and tears had started to spill down her cheeks._

_Clarke was crying as well and had dropped down onto the couch and put her head in her hands.  She knew Lexa was right, she should have told her that Finn was her ex when she noticed him as they were picking teams but she honestly didn’t feel like it was relevant.  At the same time, though, she felt like she had a right to be upset about the fact that Lexa could not control her anger and beat the shit out of Finn.  Sure, there was a part of her that loved seeing him get his ass kicked.  If anyone deserved it, it was Finn and maybe Bellamy.  She just wished it hadn’t had to have been on campus and it didn’t have to be Lexa that did it._

_She looked up from her hands and noticed that Lexa had made her way to the wall on the opposite side of the room and was leaned back with her head back against it.  That sat this way for a long time, in total silence.  Both thinking about everything that was said and trying to calm down._

**_End Flashback_ **

 

So here they were.  They had been sitting in these same positions for what felt like hours, neither speaking.  It had been better to sit in silence than start yelling at each other again.  Clarke looked over to Lexa who had apparently went into the kitchen and got an ice pack for her hand at some point.  She wanted to check on Lexa.  She hated the thought that Lexa was hurt and she wasn’t comforting her.  She was sick of this stupid fight, of not talking.  She was exhausted from the arguing and ready to go to bed but she made a promise to herself and Lexa when they first started dating that they would never go to bed mad at one another.  So, they kept sitting, both just a little bit too proud to buckle and be the first to apologize.

Finally, Clarke cleared her throat causing Lexa to lift her head and make eye contact with the blonde.  Clarke patted the couch next to her indicating that she wanted Lexa to come sit with her.  The brunette slowly stood straight up and made her way to the couch leaving a little bit of distance between the two of them.  She was completely calmed down now and regretting her actions a bit but she didn’t know where Clarke was and wanted to give the girl her space.  She was a bit shocked when Clarke reached up gently taking her chin in her left hand and getting closer to inspect the cut on her lip.  Lexa had tried to clean it up a bit but there was some dirt and dried blood still in it.

Suddenly, she stood up and left the room.  Lexa was a little fearful.  Maybe Clarke just couldn’t forgive her for this.  She had lost what she was starting to think was going to be her forever.  She loved Clarke.  She knew it, even if she hadn’t told the other girl yet.  She could see herself spending forever with Clarke and she may have just messed that up for good.  Her thoughts kept swirling around rapidly until Clarke reentered the room with a first aid kit in her hand.  She sat back down on the couch next to Lexa and opened the first aid kit on the coffee table.  Lexa sat quietly while the girl worked, pulling out everything she needed. 

First, she used an alcohol pad to clean the cut on Lexa’s lip and even had the tiniest of smiles as Lexa winced when the alcohol touched the fresh cut.  After it was cleaned up, she looked closer and then put just a bit of ointment on the bottom part of the cut.  “You won’t need stiches,” she said and then reached down to gingerly grab Lexa’s hand.  As Clarke started to check the brunette’s hand, Lexa had a moment of confusion as to how Clarke was so good at this.

Clarke must have read her mind because she said out loud, “My mom’s a doctor remember?”

Lexa just nodded and allowed Clarke to continue checking her hand.  After feeling around for a bit, the blonde seemed satisfied and put the ice pack back on Lexa’s hand.

“I don’t think anything is broken,” she said leaning back on the couch a bit and facing Lexa. 

The two stared at each other for several moments before Lexa finally spoke.  “I’m sorry,” she said quietly.

“I’m sorry too,” Clarke said reaching out to take Lexa’s good hand in hers.  “You’re right.  I should have told you who Finn was.  It’s just…I have a bit of shame regarding that situation.  As you can tell, Finn is kind of…a lot of a jerk and everyone knows it.  I don’t know why I agreed to go out with him or why I went out with him a second and a third time.  I mean…I guess I do.  I was lonely.  There’s a story that I haven’t told you and I think it’s time I did.”

Lexa just nodded for Clarke to continue.

“You remember Bellamy? Octavia’s brother,” Clarke asked gently.

Lexa nodded again, “Yeah I think so.”

“Okay well Bellamy and I have a bit of a history…” Clarke said gently.  She waited for realization to hit Lexa’s face before she continued.  “See, you know Octavia and I have been friends since we were kids and when we were little, I always had a bit of a crush on Bellamy.  Well when we were in high school and my dad died, Bellamy was there.  He came over after the funeral and stayed with me and held me all night while I cried and after that, we got really close.  We eventually ended up dating for about a year my senior year.  Bellamy had already moved here to go to college but we tried to make it work long distance.  Then one weekend before graduation, I decided to come up here and surprise Bell.  I knew he worked so I was going to be in his dorm room when he got off work to surprise him.  Well when I got to his dorm room, I could hear noises on the other side so I started banging on the door.  I heard Bellamy on the other side yell something about leaving them the fuck alone and then when the door swung open, Bellamy was standing there in his boxers and Echo was in his bed.”

Lexa cringed and clenched her fist unconsciously.  How could someone do that to Clarke?

 Clarke continued, “I was in shock so I just turned around and started walking.  Bellamy chased me all the way to the parking lot in his boxers trying to explain but what was there to explain you know?  He had been caught literally with his dick in someone else. So, I broke it off right there.  But I was insanely hurt.  I wouldn’t then and I still won’t now let him know how much that hurt me.  Bellamy was probably my first love and it crushed me when I found him with Echo.  I graduated high school the next week and thought very hard about not even coming here but I had already set up all my classes and signed my scholarships, plus I didn’t want to leave Octavia hanging on a roommate.  So, I gritted my teeth and I put my head down and I kept going and after summer I came here and I was doing okay until on my very first day of orientation who is my student advisor? Echo, of course.”

Lexa shook her head and looked sad for Clarke squeezing her hand a bit tighter.

Clarke laughed humorlessly as she continued, “Well obviously, I was distraught.  It brought everything back.  It was like I just couldn’t get away from the embarrassment so I made a decision, a stupid decision, to make an active effort to flaunt in front of Echo and Bellamy that I was fine and completely unbothered.  That was when I met Finn and Finn was convenient and he was there and he didn’t care that I was just using him to get a rise out of Bellamy and for sex.  So, even though I couldn’t stand his stupid hair cut or the way he talked or the fact that he was obviously a player, I just kept going out with him.  Anyways, we went out a few times, we hooked up a few times, and then I dumped him which did not go over well.  Apparently, he’s not used to being dumped because he called me every name under the sun and told me he could do better than me anyways. After that, we never spoke, until today.”

Lexa took several minutes to process this new information while Clarke silently chewed on her lip.  Finally, Lexa reached up and pulled Clarke in for a tight hug and then released her.  “I’m really sorry you went through all that and I just want you to know that you don’t ever have to worry about me ever cheating on you or calling you names.  I shouldn’t have gotten so angry earlier and yelled at you.  I was just still really angry from the fight and hurt and I took it out on you and I’m sorry.”

Clarke nodded and smiled slightly, “it’s okay Lex, I yelled too.”

Lexa nodded and continued, “I also want to apologize for losing my temper with Finn.  I should have known better than to go after him but after her touched you and talked to you like he did, I just saw red.  We’ve talked before about my past with fighting and how I can sometimes let that old anger get the better of the new me.  Sometimes, it’s hard to mentally beat that little foster kid in my head that was bullied and had to defend herself and everything and everyone she loved.  I acted immaturely and irrationally and I genuinely apologize.  I can’t promise that it won’t ever happen again but I do promise that I will try with everything I have to not let it happen again.”

Clarke nodded and put her hands on either side of Lexa’s face, pulling her in and kissing her gently.  “I hate fighting with you,” she said as she pulled back and looked the brunette in the eyes earnestly.

“I hate fighting with you too,” Lexa said kissing the girl again.

“Let’s agree to never fight like this again,” Clarke said.

Lexa chuckled a bit and rested her forehead against Clarke’s.  “That’s seems unlikely if you plan on us being together as long as I do.”

“And how long are you planning on us being together?” Clarke asked.

Lexa blushed a bit and just smiled kissing the girl once again with more passion and avoiding the question.  The kiss got heated before Clarke finally pulled away.  “Take me to bed,” she said hotly while looking into Lexa’s green eyes. 

And Lexa followed her orders well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys enjoyed that! Please let me know how you felt about it and feel free to leave suggestions for songs you think would fit or ideas you have. I love hearing your thoughts and want to incorporate whatever I can :)


	6. Come Back To Bed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set the morning after the last chapter and to the song "Come Back To Bed" by Trent Tomlinson

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay! Ask and ye shall receive! This one is all from Clarke's POV. Anyways, I tried to make this light and fun and it gets a little angsty at the end. I can't help it! I didn't even know I was such an angsty human!

Clarke awoke to the sun shining brightly in her window but the room was cold.  She immediately missed the human heater that fell asleep beside her.  She reached behind her to feel around in the hopes that Lexa had just scooted away from her in the night but unfortunately all she found was mattress.  She flipped over and frowned as she saw Lexa’s side of the bed empty and the covers pulled up indicating an attempt to make her side of the bed without disturbing Clarke.  Clarke giggled at Lexa’s touch of OCD and flipped back over to check the time on her phone.  She smiled for a moment at the background of her phone.  It was a picture of her and Lexa that Raven had snapped.  The two were sitting on the grass in the quad in front of a tree.  Lexa had her back to the tree and was reading a book while Clarke had her head rested on Lexa’s lap and was quietly enjoying the weather and watching Lexa read.  Thoughts back on her task at hand, she checked the time which read 7 a.m.  Lexa should still be here unless she went home to get ready for her morning class but Clarke doubted that, as Lexa never left without leaving a note or gently waking her up to say goodbye.

She flipped on her back and listened hard for noise in the apartment while concocting a plan.  If she really strained her ears, she could hear the shower running on the other side of the apartment.  She knew it wasn’t Octavia as she had a text from the girl saying she was staying at Lexa and Raven’s apartment and knew the girl didn’t have any morning classes on Monday so she definitely wouldn’t be up at 7 in the morning.  Lexa must have used the other bathroom to try to avoid waking Clarke up.

Clarke quickly unlocked her phone opened up a new blank email where she typed an email to both of her professors for her Monday classes saying that she wouldn’t be making it into class today citing a stomach virus.  She also sent off a quick text to Octavia:

Clarkey: “Hey O, sorry about yesterday and thank you for giving Lexa and I some time to work things out last night.  You really are the best.  Lexa and I are taking the day off classes so we’ll be here all day.  Let’s do dinner tonight and talk. I miss Clarke and O time! Love you! <3”

After hitting send on the text message she put her phone back on the nightstand and waited quietly for Lexa to reenter the room.  Lexa must have been finishing up with her shower when Clarke woke up because she didn’t have to wait long.  She watched, amused, as Lexa tried to ease into the room without disturbing Clarke whom she thought was still sleeping.  Once she had closed the door and turned around, she immediately made eye contact with Clarke who was lying in the bed on her back smirking. 

Lexa was wrapped in a big towel still dripping water from her long dark hair from the shower.  “Did I wake you?” she asked frowning a bit.

“No, not exactly.  I woke up cold and knew my personal heater wasn’t in the bed anymore,” Clarke giggled.

Lexa blushed a little and then sat down on her side of the bed with her back to Clarke.  She leaned back quickly to kiss the girl quickly on the lips and then sat back up facing the wall and yawning. 

Clarke admired Lexa’s strong back muscles as she sat on the edge of the bed.  There were water droplets running from her still wet hair, over the tattoo down her spine, and disappearing into the blue towel that was tightly wrapped around her body.  Clarke scooted closer and followed a droplet of water with her finger down Lexa’s back.  She saw and felt the brunette stiffen a bit as she moved even closer and sat up on her knees behind the girl.  She moved Lexa’s dark hair over her left shoulder and then placed a soft kiss to her right shoulder. 

“Claarkeeee,” Lexa almost growled as the blonde continued to place wet kisses across her shoulder and on to her next. “Clarke, I have class in less than an hour.”

“Email in sick, I did,” Clarke mumbled as she continued on her route.

“I can’t miss Professor Jaha’s class.  He’ll have a fit,” Lexa said unconvincingly.  Her mouth said one thing but her body said another as she turned into Clarke’s kisses even more.

“He’ll be fine.  I’m sure you’re way ahead of everyone else in the class.  You can skip one class,” Clarke said planting a kiss on Lexa’s pulse point, “Come on Lex, stay in bed with me all day.”  She knew she was winning this battle but Lexa still needed a little push to give in.  She eased her left arm around Lexa’s left side and wrapped her arm around the other girl’s middle.  Before Lexa even knew what was happening Clarke had her flipped over and lying flat on the bed on her back as she straddled her.  She went back to the kisses on Lexa’s neck and shoulders as she slowly started to pull the towel off the girl.  Lexa lifted her body so that Clarke could pull the towel out from under her and dropped it unceremoniously on the floor.  She continued kissing the girl, across both collarbones and started working her way down.  Lexa let out adorable little whimpers as Clarke kissed down her chest and stomach and stopped suddenly at her hips.  Lexa looked up with a slight frown on her face questioning silently why the blonde had stopped.

Clarke simply smirked and raised her left hand which was now holding up Lexa’s cell phone.  Lexa sat in shock for a minute and looked at the nightstand where her phone had been before.  She was slightly impressed that Clarke had been quick enough to steal the cell phone without Lexa noticing.  When her brain caught up with what was going on, she whined, actually whined, “Clarkeeee….”

Clarke laughed at the whine she had pulled out of her lover, “All you have to do is send the email and I keep going.”  Clarke would stoop to bribery to keep Lexa’s perfect self in bed with her all day.

Lexa looked torn for a moment longer before Clarke sucked gently on her hip and then looked back up at her with her big blue eyes.  No other thought was needed.  Lexa reached up, grabbed the cell phone, and quickly sent off an email to Professor Jaha.  When she finished, she tossed her phone back on the night stand and then winked at Clarke who continued right where she had left off.

 

………………..

 

Clarke stretched gently and opened her eyes a few hours later.  She felt a weight on her legs and peeked down to see Lexa’s right leg resting on top of hers.  The girl’s right arm was draped over her stomach and she was sleeping soundly on the pillow next to Clarke.  Clarke took a moment to watch Lexa sleep before finally deciding she was being a bit creepy.  She heard her stomach growl and decided she would get up and make food for herself and Lexa.  She gently removed the brunette’s arm and as quietly as possible, eased out of the bed.  At one point, Lexa huffed and frowned adorably in her sleep but never woke up.  Satisfied that the girl wasn’t going to wake up, Clarke made her way out of her bedroom and into the kitchen.

Once in the kitchen, she began to dig around in the cabinets and refrigerator to find something to make.  Clarke wasn’t the world’s best cook but she had a few dishes she was pretty decent at making so she hunted to see which one she had the right ingredients for.  Finally, she decided on eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast.  Simple but effective. She went to cracking eggs and heating up the skillets for the bacon and hash browns while humming a song she’d had stuck in her head for days.  She swung her hips to the tune in her head as she flipped a piece of bacon and checked on the hash browns.    


Frustrated that she couldn’t get the song out of her head, Clarke switched the kitchen radio on low and began singing with whatever Top 40 hit that was playing.  She had just took the last piece of bacon out of the skillet and was finishing up her eggs when she felt two arms wrap around her middle and a chin on her right shoulder.   


“I love when you sing,” Lexa whispered huskily in her ear before planting a kiss on her right cheek and letting the blonde get back to cooking.

“Flattery will get you everywhere Ms. Woods,” Clarke said while taking the eggs off the eye and reaching for plates.  She couldn’t quite reach the ones she wanted so she turned and looked at Lexa expectantly.

Lexa just smiled and handed the plates down to Clarke and then went around to sit on the other side of the kitchen island.  Clarke fixed both plates and then sat down next to Lexa at the kitchen island and the two dug into the food Clarke had cooked.

“This is delicious babe,” Lexa said with a mouthful of bacon.

“Well breakfast is one of the few things I’m actually decent at cooking,” Clarke replied.

“Good thing it’s my favorite thing to eat,” Lexa said happily digging into her eggs.

Clarke laughed quietly and then quirked an eyebrow at the taller girl.  Lexa finally noticed Clarke staring at her and then it registered what she had said.  She blushed a bit and simply said, “Well breakfast is my second favorite.”

Clarke laughed and went back to her hash browns. 

The two sat and ate and talked for a while just enjoying one another’s company and the quiet of the apartment.  Once they had finished their meals, Clarke got up to clean up the kitchen.  She collected both their plates and walked around the island but she had barely made it to the sink before two strong hands landed on either side of her on the counter effectively pinning her to the counter.  She set the dishes down in the sink and turned in Lexa’s arms only to be met with s passionate kiss.  The two kissed for several moments before Clarke pulled away to catch her breath.

“Thank you but what was that for?” Clarke asked.

Lexa tucked a stray strand of blonde hair behind Clarke’s ear, “For breakfast, for convincing me to stay here instead of going to class, and mostly just for being you.”

“I don’t know how to be anyone else,” Clarke said smiling warmly.

Lexa just smiled back and kissed her again, more gentle this time.  When she pulled back blue eyes met green and Clarke could have sworn she saw them twinkle a bit.  She never got tired of looking into those green eyes.  They said so much that Lexa didn’t.  Most of the time, Lexa was a woman of few words and while sometimes it drove Clarke crazy, most of the time it was just something she found endearing about the girl.  But her eyes always gave her away.  Whatever emotion she was feeling, it was displayed through those green orbs.  For instance, right now Clarke could see calmness, affection, lust, and something else she couldn’t exactly put her finger on. 

She put her arms around Lexa’s neck and pulled the girl into her for another heated kiss.  She could stay like this forever.  Wrapped up in Lexa’s arms.  She felt safe, it felt like home, she felt loved.  Loved. Clarke’s eyes shot open and Lexa was a bit startled when she pulled away suddenly.  
  
“What’s wrong babe?” Lexa asked looking a bit concerned.

“Oh, nothing, I just felt like I was falling for a second,” Clarke lied.  “You know how you get that feeling like youre falling all the sudden but you aren’t?”

Lexa looked unsure but nodded anyways.

Clarke was a little shaken.  Now that it was in the forefront of her mind there was no question.  Of course she loved Lexa.  She had loved Lexa since the second time they hung out and Lexa animatedly talked about her love of classic literature.  Clarke had never seen anyone gets so excited over old books but when she had asked Lexa what she liked to read, the girls’ eyes had lit up and she spoke more about Jane Austen and Leo Tolstoy than she had ever heard the brunette speak period.  Clarke had sat there mesmerized as Lexa spoke about _War and Peace_ and _A Tale of Two Cities_ and even though Clarke had no idea what she was talking about, she still nodded along and found herself completely hanging onto every word Lexa spoke.  

No.  There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that she loved Lexa and looking back on it, she had known the loved the girl for a while now but why hadn’t she told her yet?  It probably had something to do with the fact that she hadn’t told anyone she loved them since Bellamy broke her heart.  She had told Bellamy that she loved him and he had said he loved her too but then he had betrayed her.  Clarke knew that Lexa would never do that to her but there was some level of her that was terrified that if she spoke those words out loud she would scare Lexa or worse Lexa would say she felt the same way and then leave her like Bellamy did. 

Losing Bellamy was one thing and it had crushed her but standing in the kitchen in front of this tall, beautiful brunette, she couldn’t imagine living without the girl.  It sounded a bit ridiculous even in her head.  She knew they were young and she sounded like the protagonist in some silly rom-com but she remembered sitting with her dad one time in his study and something he had said to her that had stuck with her forever. 

**_Flashback_ **

_She was maybe 12 years old and she was laying in the floor drawing while her dad was doing research at his desk.  She had already gotten in trouble once for pestering him and asking a million questions while he was trying to work but she had a lot on her young mind and this question was important.  She stood up from the floor and walked over to the big oak desk he was working at and made sure he was looking right at her._

_“Daddy,” she had said.  “How do you know if you’re in love?”_

_“Clarke,” he had said as he removed his reading glasses, “Everyone knows at different times so I can’t tell you an exact formula that will tell you when you’re in love.  But what I can tell you is that you will love a lot in your life.  You will have love like the way you love me and your mom, love like you love your puppy Pluto, you will hopefully have love like your mom and I feel for you, and you will have the kind of love your mother and I have.  You will fall in love over and over again and sometimes you will get your heartbroken.  But when you find the one.  The person who everything feels right with, you’ll know it.  I can’t put it into words and it’s going to sound silly to a little girl like you but you will have this feeling in the pit of your stomach and in the deepest parts of your heart and you will know you can never lose that person.  That person becomes a part of you that you can’t separate from the moment you meet them and there’s no other feeling in this world like it.”_

**_End Flashback_ **

At the ripe old age of 12, Clarke had agreed with Jake that she thought he was crazy.  She just thought she loved her friend Joe from school but she wasn’t so sure after that.  But now, looking in Lexa’s eyes and seeing her soft smile, Clarke understood exactly what her father had been saying.  She understood that pull to another person now like she never had before. 

Clarke was pulled out of her thoughts as Lexa put her hands on her arms and shook her a bit, “You still with me?” she asked laughing a bit.

“Yeah babe, I’m sorry.  I was just thinking,” Clarke said honestly.  “I really need to get these dishes in water.”  She attempted to turn around back towards the sink but Lexa caught her once again and held her in place with her hips.

“Leave the dishes, come back to bed,” she said simply placing a soft kiss on the blonde’s neck.

“Using my own tactics against me I see,” Clarke said through a soft moan. 

Lexa just hummed her agreement and picked Clarke up causing the girl to squeal a bit.  She just laughed as she carried her back to the bedroom and back to bed.

 

……………………

 

Hours later Clarke and Lexa were lying in Clarke’s bed quietly.  Neither had said anything in a long time.  Lexa was slightly elevated as she had her shoulders and head on two pillows.  Clarke’s head was resting on Lexa’s chest and Lexa was slowly running her hands through her silky blonde hair.  The blonde was still caught up in her thoughts from the kitchen.  She was still wondering if she should tell Lexa.  When she should tell her.  Would Lexa say it back?  Her mind was going a million miles a minute.  She was pulled from her thoughts when she felt Lexa readjusting underneath her.

She sat up a bit and looked at the brunette, “Am I making you uncomfortable?” she asked genuinely concerned.

“Not physically,” Lexa said, “but I can tell you have something on your mind.  You want to talk about it?”

Clarke scooted onto her side of the bed and laid down on her right side facing Lexa.  As a response, Lexa slid down on the bed, threw a pillow off the bed and then mirror the blonde’s position.

Clarke was quiet for a minute before she said, “Yes…..no….I don’t know.”

“You know you can tell me anything right?” Lexa said seriously reaching across to hold Clarke’s left hand.

Clarke looked up at Lexa and there it was.  Those dark eyes looked so warm and caring. Her tone of voice was so soft and welcoming, relaying the honesty of her former statement.  The soft touch of her hand rubbing up and down her forearm to offer support and nothing more at the moment.  Lexa was so perfect.  So soft and warm with Clarke when she could be so tough and closed off to everyone else.  She was trusting Clarke with her heart and Clarke couldn’t help but to trust Lexa with hers.  And oh no, here it comes, verbal vomit.  Clarke could feel the words rising in her throat before she could stop them. 

“I love you,” she said softly but with finality.  The words came out of Clarke’s mouth without her control but she’d be damned if they came out weak or like a question.

Her eyes never left Lexa’s as she watched a wave of emotions pass over Lexa’s features and the girl laid stunned for several long moments.  Clarke was starting to get worried.  Should she have done this different?  Was she mistaken when she though Lexa felt the same?  Had she ruined their perfect day?  She just kept lying there looking at Lexa and Lexa just looked a bit shocked.  She needed to say something.  She mentally berated herself.  ‘Say something moron. She’s freaking out. Say something!’

Finally the words came and try as she might Clarke couldn’t hide the shyness in her voice, “Lexa…I’m sorry I just sprung that on you.  I just had to tell you.  You don’t have to respond right now and I don’t want you to feel obligated to say it back just because I did but I needed you to know.  I just really hope that doesn’t scare you off or anything.  I need…”

“Clarke.” Lexa said interrupting the girl’s rambling. “I…I need you to know that this scares me.”

“I know.  I understand that. I didn’t mean to scare you I just…”

“Clarke, let me finish please,” Lexa said softly.

Clarke just nodded.

“You don’t scare me.  This scares me,” she said pointing between the two of them.  “This thing we have going.  It’s everything I’ve ever wanted but it scares the shit out of me.  Everyone has left me my entire life, short of Anya and Indra.  No one has ever stayed around and after a while it’s hard not to believe that the root cause is me.  So I learned a long time ago to keep everyone at arm’s distance.  Never let anyone get too close but with you I don’t even care.  I want you as close to me as possible all the time.  I want to tell you how I feel and what I’m thinking and I’ve never had that before.  It scares the shit out of me.  How intensely I feel about you is new territory for me and I want to run into it fearless like I do everything else but I can’t because there’s a part of me that knows if I dive in, if I let you in completely, and you decide one day this isn’t right for you, I won’t survive it.  I won’t be able to take you leaving.”

Clarke nodded somberly.  She couldn’t lie and say that she wasn’t a little sad that Lexa was still worried she would leave her but she did understand where the girl was coming from.  It didn’t make the fact that she loved her and wasn’t going anywhere any less true.

Lexa sat in the quiet for a few moments and took a few deep breaths. Finally she broke the silence and Clarke met her eyes in the dimly lit bedroom, “I love you too Clarke.  More than I’ve ever loved anyone in this world.”

Clarke smiled so bright she could put the sun to shame.  Tears filled her eyes as she pulled Lexa’s body tight to hers, “Really?”

“I would never say anything to you I don’t mean,” Lexa said sincerely.

Clarke through herself on top of Lexa and kisses her fiercely repeating the words that had been in her words all day, “I love you Lexa Woods so much.”

Lexa smiled warmly and kissed the girl again, “I love you to Clarke Griffin, more than you’ll ever know.”

 

………………….

Later that night, Clarke lay in bed as she listened to Lexa rummage around in the kitchen for a snack.  She giggled as she heard a small bang and then Lexa curse loudly. 

“Who puts their backpack in the middle of the living room floor?” Lexa asks frustrated as she enters the bedroom with a bag of chips and two sodas in her hand.

“Octavia…” Clarke says as if it’s the most obvious answer in the world.

Lexa rolls her eyes and begins another rant but gets cut off by Clarke.

“Lexa, just come back to bed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, let me know what you think either on here or hit me up on tumblr @lexaneverleft! Thank you guys so much for all the love on here and I really hope you're still enjoying this!


	7. Arriving To The Kane Household

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The girl's talk about what their plans are for the upcoming holiday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is another bonus chapter that doesn't have a song associated with it. Expect a few more of these thrown in here and there. I'm not sure I'm 100% happy with this chapter and it's really just a filler chapter but it does explain some important relationship dynamics and I'm enjoying sliding in some Octaven flirting here and there.

The rest of October and most of November passed with very little excitement.  The girls were busy with their classes and extracurricular activities and trying to squeeze in a social life between those two things.  Lexa had taken an extra class this semester so she seemed to always be swamped with papers and studying and she had been hitting the gym like crazy in her free time.  Clarke was a little bummed that she saw Lexa less but was happy with the results from the extra gym time.  Lexa’s muscles were the most defined that Clarke had ever seen them and when the two did get quiet time to themselves, the blonde made sure to show Lexa how grateful she was for that. 

It was a rare relaxing Saturday towards the end of November and Clarke, Lexa, Raven, and Octavia were all sitting in Clarke and Octavia’s apartment.  It was cold and rainy outside and they were trying to make the best of a gloomy day.  Raven and Octavia were sitting on the floor playing a heated game of Connect 4.  Lexa could never figure out how a child’s game could create so much hostility between the two but she had long since given up trying to figure out the strange relationship between the two girls.  It was so obvious to Lexa that the two had feelings for one another.  Raven hadn’t come right out and said it but it was clear in the way she rolled her eyes every time Octavia mentioned her current boyfriend Lincoln.  She also saw a spark of jealousy in Octavia every time Raven flirted with a bouncer at a club or a pretty bartender.  She made a mental note to talk to Raven about it later.

Clarke was sitting on the end of the couch quietly picking her guitar and humming.  Lexa smiled as she watched Clarke pick for several minutes and then stop and stare off into space, clearly thinking.  She would sit quietly for a few seconds and then go back to picking, typically playing a different arrangement of the tune she had just played seconds before.  Lexa never imagined herself falling for someone so free-spirited and artsy.  Lexa saw herself as tough, smart, goal-oriented, and mostly level-headed.  As a younger girl she hadn't pictured herself ever falling in love because she learned at a young age that things never went the way she planned them but when she did let herself dream, she imagined falling for someone like herself.  Someone with a similar upbringing and who saw the world the same way she did.  Cruel, unforgiving, a place where you must fight for everything you have and who knew that love should come second to duty.

Clarke, however, was nothing like she had imagined.  Clarke was soft, care-free, and let her emotions guide her.  She believed in letting life take you where it wants.  Of course, she was smart, brilliant even (hell, she was pre-med), but she expressed that brilliance through different outlets.  Through the ink of her pen as she wrote a poem or a short story.  Through the paint and charcoal as she made broad strokes on a clean canvas.  Through each strum of her guitar.  She saw the world as light and as a place where people could be anything they wanted to be if they set their mind to it.  A place where love was more important than anything else.  Where with love you could survive anything.  Lexa had noticed in the past several months, some of that mentality had started to rub off on her.  She found herself not being quite so cynical, smiling more, and putting her love for Clarke above some of the more trivial things in life. 

She must have been staring for a while because she glanced up and was met with blue eyes staring back into her green eyes.  There was just a moment of silence before both girls were startled by a loud victory cry.

“In your face Reyes!” Octavia shouted as she jumped up from the table.

“It’s just a stupid game Blake,” Raven said grumpily and got off the floor to move to the nearest armchair.

“That’s not what you said when you got it out of the closet,” Octavia continued to boast falling unceremoniously on the end of the couch Clarke and Lexa were sitting on.

“Shut up,” Raven said with finality and Octavia just laughed at the girl’s behavior. “Okay, now that I’m through kicking Raven’s ass, we can chat.  What are everyone’s plans for Thanksgiving?”

Clarke sat her guitar down on the floor next to the couch and sighed, “Well you know I’m going home to spend Thanksgiving with my mom, you, and your brother.  That’ll be a fun dinner,” she said rolling her eyes.

Octavia cringed a little, “your mom shouldn’t have invited his dumbass.  I’m sorry about that by the way.”

Clarke just shrugged and turned her attention to Lexa, “What about you babe?”

“Oh, well Raven and I usually just stay on campus and have an orphan’s Thanksgiving.  My mom is out of town on a big case and Anya is spending Thanksgiving with her girlfriend’s family,” Lexa said.

Clarke looked sad for a moment.  Sometimes she thought that maybe the fact that all four girls came from non-existent or broken families is what allowed them to create their own mini family amongst themselves.  Lexa and Raven were both foster care kids who had grown up without their real parents.  Lexa had been taken in by Indra when she was a teenager but Raven had been in foster care until she hit 18 years old, but her last five years were with a family she had found happiness with.  The Sinclair’s.  The mother wasn’t extremely fond of Raven but the father had seen something in her and taught her everything she knew about engines and being a mechanic.  Tragically, though, he had died in an incident in his garage when a jack gave way and he was crushed. 

Octavia had lost both her parents at a very young age.  Her dad had left her mother when Octavia was not much more than an infant and her mother had died of cancer when Octavia was 15.  Bellamy had himself emancipated so that he could take care of the both of them.  Clarke, who sadly had the largest family, was the only child of two only children.  She had grown up with both her mother, Abby, and her father, Jake.  She was extremely close to both of her parents but her father was killed in a car accident a few years ago.  Last year, her mother had gotten remarried to a good man and one of her father’s best friends, Marcus Kane.  Just last month Abby had called Clarke to tell her that she was pregnant and that Clarke was going to be a big sister.

She wasn’t sure exactly what came over her but Clarke just blurted out, “You guys should come home with us.”

Lexa, Raven, and Octavia all looked a little shocked. 

Lexa was the first one to speak, “Clarke that’s a big offer.  You should probably talk to your mom first.” It didn’t need to be said out loud that Lexa wasn’t as much worried about having too many people at Clarke’s house but more about the fact that she was incredibly nervous to meet Clarke’s family.

Clarke smiled softly at Lexa and put a hand on her knee, “Don’t worry about my mother.”  The statement held more meaning to both of them than it did on the surface.  “She always says the more the merrier and she will love to meet you and Raven.  She listens to me babble on about you guys on the phone all the time.  She’ll be excited.”

Raven seemed to be getting excited about the prospect of home cooked food and spending the holiday with people she cared about other than Lexa but Lexa still looked a bit unsure. 

Clarke put her hand on Lexa’s left leg and rubbed softly, “It will be okay baby.  Plus, I can’t stand the thought of you and Raven here by yourselves having an ‘Orphan’s Thanksgiving’ when you could be with us.  With your family.”

Lexa made eye contact with Clarke and the look in the blonde’s eyes nearly made her stomach hurt.  There was a mixture of sadness and hopefulness that would have brought Lexa to tears if there weren’t other people in the room.  She just nodded and kissed Clarke fully on the lips.  “Okay.”

Raven and Octavia both jumped up and high fived, excited about spending the holidays together.  Raven shoved Lexa on the arm and laughed, “Okay, enough mushy stuff.  Play me in Connect 4!”

Clarke and Lexa just laughed and rolled their eyes and Lexa made a move to get down in the floor and reset the pieces to begin their game.  Clarke watched amusedly at the two brunettes’ and smiled fondly when Lexa looked to her and winked.  She would never tell the girl but she was extremely nervous now too.  Lexa was going to meet her mom and her step dad on Thanksgiving when her ex-boyfriend would be present.  Just great. 

 

The next weekend found the four girls piling into Clarke’s car preparing to make the two-hour drive to Clarke and Octavia’s home town.  The trip started with Clarke and Lexa in the front seat and Raven and Octavia in the back seat but about halfway through Lexa and Octavia had to switch places because Raven and Octavia’s bickering was driving Clarke crazy.

It took them an extra thirty minutes because of traffic and having to stop twice for bathroom breaks but they finally pulled up in front of Clarke’s mother’s house.  Lexa looked up at the big, white house.  It was in a large suburban neighborhood but each home had around a half acre of land surrounding it.  The home had a wraparound porch with a big swing on the front.  Lexa and Raven had just finished pulling everyone’s suitcases out of the trunk of the car when the front door swung open and a middle-aged woman with graying dark hair and a growing belly stepped out.

“Clarke,” she said warmly and spread her arms open for a hug.

Clarke grabbed Lexa’s hand and made her way to the front porch and up the three steps into her mother’s arms.  She dropped Lexa’s hand while she hugged her mother tightly.  Abby pulled back from the hug and took Clarke’s face in her hands giving the girl a quick once over.  “I’ve missed you,” she said finally releasing the blonde.

Clarke smiled back at her mother and then reached over to grab Lexa’s hand again.  Abby noticed the gesture and refocused her attention on the tall brunette standing next to her daughter, “You must be Lexa.”

Lexa nodded and extended her hand attempting to look confident despite her growing nerves. 

Abby reached out and shook the girl’s hand firmly.  She was pretty good at reading body language and she could tell right off that Lexa wasn’t much of a hugger. 

“It’s nice to meet you Mrs. Kane and thank you for having us for Thanksgiving,” Lexa said politely.

Abby just waved her hand, “No need to thank me Lexa.  This household is always welcoming to anyone on holidays and I’ve been excited to meet you.  Clarke said she was going to bring you home to meet me months ago but she seems to have forgotten where home was until now.”

Clarke looked a bit guilty as she met her mother’s accusing glare.  She rubbed the back of her neck slowly and tried to give her mother an apologetic look, “I’m sorry mom, classes have been crazy.  You know how it is.”

Abby seemed to accept this answer begrudgingly before turning her attention to the two girls walking up the sidewalk towards the porch.  She greeted Octavia with a warm smile, a hug, and the same once over she had given Clarke.  Abby had become a bit of a mother figure to Octavia and Bellamy after their own mother had passed.  Bellamy raised himself and Octavia for the most part but Abby had never been far away when they needed help.  She had come to see the siblings as her own children going so far as to moving Octavia into her home when Bellamy went away to college.  She then took the time to introduce herself to Raven who she immediately took a liking to.  Raven had hugged her and thanked her for letting them come for Thanksgiving much like Lexa had but had made a joke about her not possibly being old enough to be Clarke’s mother before earning a slap from Octavia.

“Quit flirting with my pseudo-mother,” Octavia said playfully.

Raven simply raised her hands in surrender while Abby laughed and led the group inside.  Once everyone was in the house and the front door was closed she turned around to address the girls.

“Okay ladies, Marcus is still at work so you guys can meet him when he gets home in a few hours.  Until then, I have a lot of cooking to do so feel free to make yourselves at home.  Clarke and Octavia, Bellamy hasn’t arrived yet so you have your pick of where you want to sleep.  You’ll have to double up on rooms though because unfortunately we’ve already started working on the nursery so I’m down a room.”

Clarke and Octavia nodded and began to lead the way up the steps before Abby called, “Clarke, can you come here for just a moment please?”

Clarke made her way back down the steps and followed her mother into the kitchen.  Once in the kitchen, her mother checked to make sure no one was in ear shot and then addressed the girl, “Clarke, I am fine with you and Lexa sharing a room but I just ask that you please be respectful of me while you’re in this house.”

“Mom…” Clarke huffed.

“Clarke,” Abby mimicked, “I know you’re an adult and I’m not so ignorant as to think you and your girlfriend don’t have sex.  I just ask that you please…refrain this weekend.  I don’t have a problem with it I just…you’re still my little girl okay?”

Clarke nodded and hugged her mom and started to leave the kitchen before Abby grabbed her arm, “Clarke, one more thing.  I know things with you and Bellamy are weird now and it’s going to be ever weirder with Lexa here but I would like to keep the awkwardness down to a minimum so if you need me to talk to Bellamy or anything, let me know.”

“It’ll be fine mom.  We make it work every year and Lexa just wants you to like her so she isn’t going to do anything to cause a problem,” Clarke said with false confidence.

Abby seemed to accept the answer and let go of Clarke so she could make her way upstairs to find the other three girls.  She walked by what had been Octavia's old bedroom through the years and found Raven and Octavia arguing over who would take what bed.  She laughed thinking that would mean Bellamy would be stuck on the pullout sofa in her mother’s office.  She walked a little farther down the hallway and found Lexa sitting quietly in her old bedroom.

The bedroom was exactly the way she had left it when she went away for college.  The walls were a light blue and were covered with Clarke’s art, posters of bands she liked, and hand written poems and song lyrics.  Sitting in the center of the room was her full-size bed made with a black comforter and black pillow cases.  Lexa was sat at the foot of the bed with her and Clarke’s bags sitting at her feet.  Lexa was looking around the room taking in her surroundings.  Clarke cleared her throat and broke Lexa out of her trance and was rewarded with a smile.

“I don’t guess I should’ve expected anything different,” Lexa said, “always the artist.”

Clarke smiled and sat on the bed next to Lexa crossing her legs underneath herself and leaning her head on Lexa’s firm shoulder.  She just nodded to Lexa’s comment.  Clarke thought it felt strange to have Lexa in her childhood bedroom.  Even though it was only just under 2 years, it felt like it had been a lifetime since this room felt like home.  And maybe it had.  After her father’s death and the falling out with Bellamy, this room, this whole town, didn’t feel large enough for her.  She always felt claustrophobic everywhere she went.  Abby had tried her best but Clarke had always been closer to her father and their relationship was complicated at best.

As if Lexa had been reading her mind she said, “Do you and your mom not get along great?”

Clarke looked surprised and picked her head up, “Why do you ask that?”

“I don’t know.  Just a feeling I guess.  I’m pretty good at sensing tension and stuff,” Lexa said with a shrug.

Clarke sighed, “I guess our relationship is just…complicated.”  Clarke paused deciding the best way to explain their relationship.  “See my mom tends to appeal to the more left-brain side of me if that makes sense.  She’s always been about pushing me to do my best in school and making sure I attended the best college.  She’s the reason I’m pre-med to be honest.  She’s a doctor and she's always wanted me to follow in her footsteps and I hate feeling like I'm going to disappoint her.  My dad on the other hand, fostered all of this,” she said indicating all of the art on her walls.  “He put me in art classes and encouraged me to find inspiration in myself and in the things around me.  He would keep my drawings on his desk and he taught me how to play guitar.  Don’t get me wrong, he pushed me academically too because he was an engineer and understood the importance of school and a good education but he also believed that you could learn and grow just as much from the arts.”

“Sounds like a smart man,” Lexa said thoughtfully.

“He was,” Clarke said burying her head back into Lexa’s shoulder. Clarke suddenly became shy and almost whispered her next words, “Lex, could I ask you something? And if it’s too weird or anything you can say no and it won’t hurt my feelings.”

Lexa looked a bit thrown off by Clarke’s shyness but nodded anyways.

“Uhm, well when I come home for holidays, I always try to go visit my dad’s grave and take fresh flowers and I was just wondering if you would go with me,” Clarke said more quickly than she intended too.

Lexa could sense Clarke’s nerves and simply shifted so Clarke would lift her head and took the blonde’s hands in her own.  “I would be honored to accompany you,” she said warmly and sealed her words with a chaste kiss to Clarke’s lips.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, there it is! The next chapter will be a continuation of this one and you will get the big awkward Thanksgiving dinner and I'm thinking Lexa may have a conversation with Bellamy because I think that needs to happen. Anddddd what else could happen? I don't know. What do you guys want to see!? Let me know here or on Tumblr! As always, comments and suggestions are welcome and are the fuel that keep me going. Are you guys still out there reading this??? :) 
> 
> Side note: I'm taking prompts now for one shots involving Clexa, Sanvers, Jemily, Rizzles, and Nysara just to help keep the creative juices flowing so if you have anything you've been really wanting to see, I want to try to explore some fun things that I've never written before and see what I'm really capable of. I'll accept prompts on my inbox here or on either of my tumblr pages (@lexaneverleft and @tattedkat2314). Anyways, I've rambled on long enough! Enjoy!


	8. Nowhere I'd Rather Be

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Filler chapter leading up to a confrontation in the next chapter ;) Some fun Octaven stuff for the fans of that relationship as well :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm realizing that I am just not good at following rules lol. I know each chapter is supposed to have a song but I'm finding it hard to decide on songs for the Thanksgiving chapters and I don't want to make you guys wait longer so I'm just putting them out there. I hope you don't mind too much :)

Clarke awoke to the sun shining into her small childhood bedroom.She smiled softly and stretched before reaching behind herself to pull Lexa in tighter.However, when she reached as far back as she could, she was met with an empty bed.She turned over completely and frowned as she saw that the brunette was nowhere to be seen.She slowly sat up and checked her phone but found no messages from the girl.Next, she strained her ears hard attempting to hear any noise throughout the house.She could hear her mother in the kitchen banging pots and pans so she got up and threw on a t-shirt and a pair of Lexa’s athletic shorts.

As she walked by Octavia and Raven’s room, she noticed that the bed and the air mattress were made and neither girl was around.Clarke checked the time on her phone again and saw that it was only half past eight.She wondered where everyone had ran off to so early.

When she finally made it downstairs, she was greeted by her mother.

“Morning Clarke,” Abby said as she turned around to give Clarke a peck on the cheek.

Clarke kissed her mother back before plopping down at the kitchen table, “Morning, what are you making?”

Abby flipped a pancake, “Pancakes, bacon, and eggs. Sound good?”

“My favorite,” Clarke said with a smile.“Hey, mom, where is everyone this morning?”

“Octavia is around here somewhere, up to no good I would assume,” she said with a chuckle, “And Raven and Lexa were headed to the backyard with backpacks about thirty minutes ago.”

Clarke rolled her eyes playfully, “Of course they were.”

Abby looked a little confused but just shrugged her shoulders as Clarke got up from the table and left the kitchen.She walked down the hallway and into the family living room.Her mother had the curtains that covered the door opened but she couldn’t see Lexa or Raven right off so she made a few steps closer to the door and reached for the handle.Before she could even get her hand on the handle, however, a voice, gruffly calling Clarke’s name, broke the quiet and Clarke startled, jumping a few inches in the air.

Octavia popped her head from the chair she was sitting in facing the window.

“Jesus, O, you scared the shit out of me,” Clarke said reaching back for the handle.

“Clarke, if you stop what is happening right now, I swear to God, I will kill you with my bare hands,” Octavia said with only mild sincerity.

Clarke removed her hand from the door handle and walked to the chair where Octavia was sitting and peered out the window.She immediately spotted Lexa and Raven in the back yard.Both girls were wearing athletic shorts and sports bras in different colors.Lexa was wearing black on black while Raven was sporting a red sports bra with white shorts.Both girls had their dark hair pulled back in ponytails and were dripping with sweat already.

Clarke watched as Lexa helped Raven pull on a pair of boxing gloves and strapped them tightly for her before leaning over and pulling out a pair of punch mitts for herself.She watched appreciatively as Lexa’s abs flexed when she laughed at something Raven said.In true Lexa form, though, the smile was gone as quickly as it appeared and she took a firm stance across from Raven holding the punch mitts in front of her face.Raven took her spot across from her and nodded as Lexa gave her some kind of instruction.

As soon as Raven landed the first punch she threw, Clarke immediately saw the appeal of what Octavia had been watching.The girls moved in a slow circle smoothly, ducking and weaving occasionally.With each punch Raven threw, her strong arm muscles tensed up and each time she ducked to avoid a counter Lexa threw, her stomach muscles would stretch and tighten.In response, Lexa would smoothly absorb every hit Raven connected on and her shoulder and back muscles would flex each time. Clarke watched in awe as Lexa’s abs flexed impossibly tighter with each movement.

She and Octavia sat in silence as Raven and Lexa went back and forth for quite a while.Every so often, they would switch and Lexa would punch as Raven held the punch mitts up for her.Clarke forced herself to look away from the captivating sight in front of her and looked over at Octavia, who was practically drooling and it finally registered what Octavia had said before she called her over.

“Well I know you aren’t staring at Lexa with that look on your face,” Clarke said as she playfully waved her hand in front of Octavia’s face.

Octavia simply shoved Clarke on the shoulder and scowled.

“O, why don’t you and Raven just hook up already?You both clearly have a thing for one another.I mean you can’t stop ogling her abs right now.”

Octavia finally looked away from the two brunettes outside and looked up at Clarke, “First of all, I am simply admiring her physical physique.Raven and I are Just. Friends.I just happen to enjoy an attractive body, even if it is on one of my best friends.Second of all, even if I wanted to go down that path, Raven isn’t interested.”

Most people wouldn’t have noticed the slight longing in her voice and the way her head and shoulders dropped slightly but Clarke had lived with Octavia a long time and had been her best friend even longer.She knew that Octavia liked Raven a lot more than she would ever let on.One time in a drunken stupor, Octavia had gushed on and on about how pretty Raven was and then cried for a solid thirty minutes in Clarke’s arms about how Raven would never want a girl like her.The next morning, the brunette avidly denied the events but later shyly asked Clarke to not mention it to Raven or Lexa.Clarke had honored that promise to her best friend but when Lexa later mentioned that she thought Raven had a crush on Octavia, Clarke made it her mission to get the two together.

Clarke rolled her eyes at how oblivious her best friend was, “You’re crazy. Raven totally has a thing for you just like YOU have a thing for HER and one day when you both realize it, the sex is going to be explosive.”Clarke laughed at the shocked look on Octavia’s face and made her way back to the door.

Octavia realized that Clarke was going to go outside and stop the work out and jumped up from her chair, trying to block Clarke’s path to the door, “Come on, Clarke, just wait a little longer?” she asked with a sweet smile.

“Nuh-uh.I’m done being a creep with you.I’m going to kiss my incredibly sexy, sweaty girlfriend and if you would get your head out of your ass, you could be doing the same thing,” she said pushing around Octavia and reaching the back door.

Octavia took no offense to Clarke’s ribbing but pouted at Clarke’s insistence to ruin her show.Instead of staying inside and pouting, though, she followed Clarke into the back yard.Immediately Lexa and Raven saw and heard the other two girls enter the yard and dropped their hands.Clarke walked right up to Lexa and stood on her tip toes, planting a kiss on the taller girl’s lips.

“Good morning,” Lexa responded, returning the kiss with a soft smile.

“Good morning sweaty.Do you ever take a day off?” the blonde asked playfully, gently slapping Lexa’s muscular stomach.

“Occasionally, but definitely not on Thanksgiving after I saw the menu your mom has drawn up.”

Clarke laughed, “She gets a little excited on holidays.”

Lexa nodded and then looked to Octavia who was still standing on the porch, near the back door, “What’s with you?” she called over to the girl.

“Nothing, what’s with you? Don’t you know we’re on vacation? People aren’t supposed to work OR work out on vacation,” Octavia responded.

Clarke smiled sneakily, “See, I think O just needs a hug.She’s a little grumpy this morning.”Clarke looked towards Raven and winked.

Raven smiled back, catching on to what Clarke was doing. “I mean, I could help out with that,” Raven said, walking towards Octavia.

Octavia’s eyes widened and she pointed a finger at Raven, “Raven, keep your gross, sweaty body away from me.”

Raven continued her advancement, feigning hurt, “Octavia, I’m wounded.My body is gross?”

Octavia took a step closer to the gate leading out of the back yard and into the front yard.“Raven,” she warned.

When Raven did not slow at all, Octavia took a few more steps closer to the gate so she could put a hand on the latch, “Raven, I swear on all that is Holy.”

At that moment, Raven took off running and Octavia swung the gate open hard and disappeared around the other side of the house screaming at Raven, not to touch her.Raven was out of the gate right on her trail in seconds.

Clarke and Lexa both broke out in laughter as they could still hear Octavia hollering at Raven from the other side of the house.It didn’t take long for their voices to sound far off as Octavia took off running down the street with Raven close behind.

“Raven will definitely catch her,” Lexa said through her laughter.

“Octavia will let her,” Clarke said, laughing even harder.

As their laughter started to die down Lexa looked at Clarke, “I was wondering how long you were going to creep on us from the window instead of just coming out here.”

“You guys knew we were there?” Clarke asked.

“Well I did. I think Raven was clueless,” Lexa said with a shrug.

“Octavia was watching you guys from the window when I came through and wouldn’t let me come out until she got to see you guys boxing some.She didn’t want me to come out when I did but I got tired of watching.You know I’m more of a hands-on kind of girl,” Clarke said with a wink as she pulled Lexa into her tighter and placing one hand on her hip and the other on her right bicep.

Lexa just chuckled, “I do, and it’s one of my favorite things about you.” Lexa kissed Clarke again and then led her to the patio so she could sit down on the edge and take her wrist wraps off.

Clarke helped Lexa unwrap her wrists as they continued talking.Moments later they heard a loud click from the side of the house and Octavia came stomping through the gate.“Dammit Reyes, now I have to go take another shower. I smell like a sweat shop!” she said.

Raven came through the gate right behind her with a triumphant smile on her face, “That will teach you to call my body gross.”

Octavia simply huffed and made her way into the house, ignoring Clarke and Lexa’s laughter.Raven followed behind her, saying something about flirting with Abby for bacon.

“Do not flirt with my mother Raven!” Clarke yelled as the door closed without a response from Raven.

Lexa just shook her head, “When are those two just going to get over themselves and hook up?”

“I have no idea but I wish they would come on with it,” Clarke replied.

Lexa finished stuffing her hand wraps into her bag and zipped it up, “I’m not willing to flirt with your mother for it but I would kill for a big plate of bacon.”

Clarke just laughed and shoved Lexa, “I don’t know how you stay as fit as you are when you eat like you do.”

The only response she got was a shrug as Lexa stood up and offered her a hand.She took it and the brunette helped her up from her spot on the porch.They went inside the house and walked straight to the kitchen where Raven was leaned on the counter with a half-eaten piece of bacon in her hand.Abby was still behind the stove working several different pans as bacon sizzled loudly in the background.

When Clarke entered the room she pointed at Raven, “You better have gotten that bacon in the most wholesome way possible.”

Abby looked confused but Raven simply lifted her hands in surrender and then smiled smugly as she stuffed the rest of the bacon in her mouth.

Clarke and Lexa sat down at the kitchen table side by side and listened quietly as Raven told Abby about her major.

“Mechanical engineering,” Abby said thoughtfully.“I would imagine that you’re in the minority in most of your classes, being a female.”

Raven nodded and took a sip from her glass of orange juice, “Yeah, but I don’t mind too much though.I get a particular sense of enjoyment out of kicking a bunch of guy’s asses at everything I do.”

Abby laughed and reached over to turn the eye that the eggs were cooking on, off.

“Did we mention how humble she is?” Clarke said laughing.

Abby laughed again, “That’s perfectly fine. It’s important to be confident in oneself.Especially for a woman in a field primarily run by men.”

“Yeah, what she said!” Raven said, pointing to Abby.“Why can’t you guys be more appreciative of my ‘confidence’?”

This caused both Clarke and Lexa to roll their eyes and shake their heads.“Thanks a lot mom,” Clarke said playfully.

All four women were laughing when Octavia entered the room.Her dark hair was still wet from her impromptu shower.“What are you guys cackling about in here?”

“Mom is blowing up Raven’s ego even more than it already is,” Clarke said, winking at Raven.

“Shut up,” Raven said playfully.“O, did you really go shower?”

“I sure did! I smelled like sweat and grass.”

Raven rolled her eyes and moved over to the kitchen table where Clarke and Lexa were sitting, “You are so overdramatic sometimes.”

Octavia stuck her tongue out at Raven and plopped down in the chair right beside her stealing the half eaten piece of bacon out of Raven’s hand and popping it into her mouth.The mechanic made a noise of disapproval and pouted at the other girl.

Clarke and Lexa shared a look but neither said anything.They would continue to push the girls but only at the right times.Finally, Abby finished bringing all the food to the table and sat at the head of the table.

“Dig in girls,” she said indicating the spread of food on the table.

All five women started loading their plates with food in relative silence.For a few minutes all that could be heard was the clanking of silverware on plates and bowls and an occasional, “Could you hand me the…”

Once all the girls had their food on their plates and were happily shoving said food in their mouths, Clarke spoke, “Where’s Marcus, mom?”

“He had to pick up a client at the airport early this morning.He should be here any minute,” she said.

“And when is Bell getting here?” Octavia asked around a mouthful of eggs.

“Bellamy said he and Echo would be here around lunch time,” Abby responded.

Both Clarke and Octavia grimaced, “He’s bringing Echo?” Octavia asked first.

Lexa thought she could feel Clarke tense up and a quick glance at her face, let Lexa know that she was correct in her assessment.To the untrained eye, Clarke looked completely fine but Lexa knew Clarke better than anyone.She could tell from the way her hand had searched for Lexa’s under the table suddenly and the way she sat up just a little bit straighter.She squeezed the blonde’s hand gently to let her know she wasn’t alone.

Luckily, at that moment, the front door opened and Marcus came walking into the kitchen.“Good morning ladies!” he said with a bright smile.Marcus was a bit older than Abby.He had short graying hair and a short, scruffy beard that covered the bottom portion of his face.He took the time to walk around the table and greet each woman, giving Clarke and Octavia hugs, Abby a kiss on the cheek, and shaking hands with Lexa and Raven.

“It’s not often I get to have breakfast with 5 beautiful ladies,” Marcus said as he sat down at the end of the table across from Abby and began making his plate.

“You’re very charming there Marcus,” Raven said pointing a finger at the man.

“Oh yeah, he’ll give you a run for your money Raven,” Clarke said relaxing a bit.

Octavia scoffed, “she’s not half as smooth as she thinks she is.”

Raven narrowed her eyes at Octavia but, in a completely uncharacteristic move, she said nothing in response.

The rest of the meal went by in a relaxed manner.Marcus explained his job to the girls and took the time to get to know Raven and Lexa separately.

 

After breakfast, Clarke and Lexa volunteered to take care of the dishes and the rest of the group went their separate ways.Abby went to her office to work on a few consultations and Octavia decided to go visit an old friend who lived a few houses away.Marcus and Raven disappeared out to the garage to look at Marcus’ 1969 Ford Mustang, which was a little side project, he had been working on for years.

Once everyone had cleared out of the kitchen, Lexa approached Clarke who was quietly washing dishes.

“You okay?” she asked as she rested her left hand on the small of Clarke’s back.

“Hmm…” Clarke looked genuinely surprised. “Sorry, yeah, I’m fine.”

“Clarke, I could sense that you were upset as soon as your mom mentioned Echo was coming and I think you have every right to be upset.I’m not judging your mother but why would she allow Bellamy to bring Echo home for the holidays? Doesn’t she see how that would upset you?”Lexa said clearly frustrated and upset that Clarke was getting the raw end of the deal.

Clarke sighed, “Echo is Bellamy’s girlfriend just like you’re mine.She has as much right to come to dinner with his family as you do I guess.”

Lexa shook her head, “I get that Bellamy is a part of your family in a way but after everything he could at least respect you enough to not bring her and I figured your mother would draw a line.She was pretty adamant about making sure there was no tension between Bellamy and I this weekend. I can’t believe she wouldn’t be a little concerned with this.”

Clarke put down the dish she had just rinsed and dried her hands while turning around.She leaned on the sink and dropped her head when Lexa put her hands on either of her hips and stepped closer. “What’s wrong Clarke?” she asked picking up Clarke’s chin with her finger.

“Well, my mom doesn’t exactly know the whole story in regards to Bellamy and me,” Clarke said shyly.

“What does she think happened?”

“Well you have to understand that Octavia and Bellamy have been a part of my family for a long time.My mom considers them her children as much as she does me.And I didn’t want to cause unnecessary tension in the family in addition to what Bellamy and I were already going through so I told my mom that Bellamy and I decided to break it off because living so far from each other showed us that we didn’t have that much in common.I told her it was a mutual decision,” Clarke explained.

Lexa shook her head thoughtfully, “I understand your reasoning for doing that but it’s not fair to you to have to push all that stuff inside.”

“Well I had O to help me with stuff and a couple other friends knew the truth, but it was just easier this way,” Clarke said.“So my mom doesn’t think anything of having Bellamy and Echo here because she doesn’t know the history.”

Lexa just nodded her understanding and pulled Clarke in for a tight hug. “Well he and Echo just better be on their best behavior and be respectful of you,” Lexa stated firmly.

Clarke pulled back from the hug and looked up into Lexa’s green eyes, “Lex, you promised.”

Lexa put a hand over her heart, “I swear I will not cause a scene in front of your family and I will not lay hands on Bellamy or Echo, however, I want you to know that as long as we are together, no one will ever disrespect you without receiving my opinion on the matter.Bellamy is no exception to that rule.”

Clarke still looked a bit worried.

“Just trust me Clarke.I swore I would conduct myself in a more reasonable manner and I will not break that promise to you.”

Clarke visibly relaxed and reached up to put a hand on the back of Lexa’s neck and pulled her into a soft kiss.Once they broke apart the blonde looked up into green eyes fondly, “thank you for always being there for me and for always having my back.”

“There’s nowhere I’d rather be.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There it is! Please let me know what you guys think of this chapter and this story! Your comments drive me to continue and I want to know what you guys are thinking. What are your theories? What's going to happen? Who's the confrontation going to be between? Hmm...thank you guys so much for all the love! It means the world!


	9. Smile

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, I know it has been too long since I updated this fic and I apologize profusely! I have way too many active fics and have been super busy with the holidays butttttt here's an update and I think you're really going to like this one :) 
> 
> The song choice on this one isn't quite as literal to the lyrics as some of the others but towards the end, you'll get a feel for why I chose this song. 
> 
> Song: Smile by Lily Allen

The rest of the morning was uneventful for the girls.  Marcus and Raven stayed out in the garage until close to lunch when Abby finally called them in that afternoon to get cleaned up for dinner.  Octavia arrived back home about two hours after she had left and plopped down on the couch in the living room with Clarke and Lexa who were watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on the television.  Clarke had her feet propped up in Lexa’s lap as Lexa nodded in and out of a cat nap. 

Raven had just joined them in the living room and Lexa was almost completely into a full nap when a car door slamming jolted her awake. Clarke instinctively reached out and touched Lexa’s arm to let her know everything was all right.

“That must be Bell and Echo!” Abby yelled from the kitchen. “Can someone get the door?”

Octavia started to get up right as Marcus walked through the hallway and waved her away.  “I’ve got it. Relax girls.”

Octavia sat back down with a shrug and Marcus walked over to the door, swinging it open.  “Bellamy!” he said as he reached for a handshake with the taller, shaggy haired man.  “How are you son?”

“I’m good.  How are you?” Bellamy replied in a deep voice.

“Good, I’m glad to hear it.  Echo it’s nice to see you,” Marcus spoke kindly as he hugged the woman.  “Come in, come in,” he said as he waved the two into the house.

Lexa felt Clarke’s body tense as soon as Bellamy and Echo entered the room. Bellamy was tall and thin with a very angular face.  He had medium length, dark hair that he had brushed back on his head.  Echo was almost as tall as Bellamy with hard features.  Her long, brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail with a few stands falling down around her face.  She smiled at the women sitting in the living room but it seemed forced.  There was something off about her for Lexa.  She thought that maybe she was just biased after what the girl had done to Clarke so she shook off the feelings. 

“Hey O,” Bellamy said to the brunette, sitting next to Raven on the couch.

“Hey bro,” Octavia said without much enthusiasm.  Things had been tense between the two since Clarke and Bellamy’s relationship had ended.  Octavia knew her brother was a moron but she didn’t find it easy to forgive him for what he did to her best friend. 

“Don’t I at least get a hug?” he asked with a smile and an air of cluelessness.

Octavia rolled her eyes but got off the couch and gave her brother a hug.  Despite her residual anger at her brother for his actions towards Clarke, Octavia melted into the man’s hug.

“Missed ya O,” he said quietly before pulling apart.

Octavia smiled and then slapped him on the arm, “Sap.”  She turned to the girl standing next to Bellamy and the smiled faded. “Echo,” Octavia said dryly before turning on her heel and returning to her seat.

Bellamy cleared his throat and tried to overcome the awkwardness of the room.  “Uh, hi Clarke,” Bellamy said to the blonde and made a move like he was going to come towards the girl.

Lexa felt Clarke’s legs tense in her lap and she rubbed her legs softly with one hand before pushing them off softly and standing, effectively stopping Bellamy’s advance and putting herself between the man and her girlfriend.  “I’m Lexa,” she said extending her hand towards the surprised man.  “Clarke’s girlfriend.”

Bellamy looked shocked as he stood eye to eye with the tall girl.  There was a fire in her eyes and a challenge in her stance and he felt a chill run down his spine from the fierceness of it all.  Despite feeling a bit put off he reached out and gripped Lexa’s hand.  The shake was firm, almost too firm.  “Bellamy Blake,” he said.

“I’ve heard a lot about you,” Lexa said calmly but the meaning behind the words was not lost on Bellamy or anyone else in the room except maybe Raven and Marcus.

Soft hands rested on Lexa’s hips then and she felt Clarke’s body brush against her left side.  She had recovered from the uneasiness she felt when Bellamy and Echo had first entered the room and realized she needed to defuse the situation, knowing that both Bellamy and Lexa were hot heads.  “Hey Bellamy, Echo,” she said softly.  “Happy Thanksgiving.  Lex, let’s go see if mom needs help in the kitchen.” Lexa seemed to understand what Clarke was trying to do and smiled tightly at the man.

“I’m sure we’ll talk more later,” she said releasing Bellamy’s hand and exiting the room with Clarke at her side.

Bellamy and Echo made uncomfortable eye contact and the room was silent for a beat before Raven broke the silence, “Well that was weird.  I’m Raven Reyes!”

Octavia rolled her eyes at the girl’s cluelessness and went back to watching the tv.  She had a feeling that things were going to get interesting yet.

 

Dinner came and went fairly smoothly.  Abby and Marcus dominated most of the conversation asking each of the young adults at the table about their separate endeavors.  As they went around the table, each of them dutifully told the rest of the table about their majors and classes and extracurricular activities.  Octavia was learning a fourth language for the hell of it, Clarke had an upcoming art show that Abby promised to attend, Lexa was considering joining student government, Raven had a huge psychics project coming up that was over half of her grade, Bellamy had joined the intermural basketball team, and Echo had placed in a school fencing tournament a few weeks before.  The conversation flowed smoothly and Clarke breathed a little easier as it wrapped up.

This had been the moment she was the most worried about.  The time when they were all in close proximity and forced to chat idly with one another.  She kept a constant eye on Lexa and Bellamy to make sure they didn’t talk over one another or anything else. 

They were all finishing up dessert and Clarke was feeling surprisingly calm.  Once dinner was over, they could go to separate areas of the house and avoid each other for the rest of the day and night. 

“Mrs. Kane, you outdid yourself,” Raven said as she pushed herself away from the table and placed a hand on her flat stomach.

“It’s Abby, please,” Abby playfully chided.  “But thank you.”

“I’ll help you clean up mom,” Clarke volunteered, standing and collecting her and Lexa’s empty plates.  Lexa tried to stand as well but Clarke put a hand on her arm, stopping her.  “Just relax, I’ll help mom clean up.”  She left no room for argument as she followed Abby into the kitchen, leaving the rest of the group to move to the living room.

Octavia and Raven plopped down on the love seat together with Raven groaning about her full stomach.  She flopped down with half her body resting on Octavia’s who playfully pushed the Latina off. 

“Your side of the loveseat,” Octavia grunted as she tried to push Raven over.

“O, have mercy, I’m too full. I need to stretch out,” Raven complained.

“Lay in the floor then Reyes, not on me.”

Lexa could tell that Octavia wasn’t trying that hard to get Raven off her.  The brunette was stronger than she looked and if she really wanted Raven off, Raven would already be in the floor.

“Octavia, this is a loveseat,” Raven said exaggerating the “love” part of the word.  “Where’s the love?”

“Ugh, you’re pathetic,” Octavia conceded, letting Raven rest her head on her legs.

Raven smiled contently as she finally got comfortable.

Marcus was laughing at the two from his recliner in the corner of the room.  He was kicked back with the newspaper in his hands and appeared to be half asleep already.

The only other seat that was available was the couch directly across from where Octavia and Raven were sitting and Bellamy and Echo had already taken up two spots on it.  Deciding she would rather not go down that road, Lexa spoke to no one in particular, “I think I’m going to go get some fresh air.”  With that she slipped through the back of the house and out the back door. 

There were two lounging chairs on the back porch and Lexa plopped down in one and leaned back, letting the sun warm her face.  It wasn’t cold outside just yet but there was a bit of a chill in the air and the warmth lulled Lexa into a sleepy haze.  She was almost dozed off when she felt the warmth go away and realized she was shadowed.  She opened her eyes slowly, surprised to see the person she least expected, standing just a few feet from her.

Bellamy stood with his hands in his pockets and an awkward half smile on his face, “Lexa, right?”

Lexa simply nodded.

“Mind if I join you?” he asked signaling to the other lounge chair that was sitting a few feet from Lexa.

Lexa indicated she didn’t mind and the man sat down on the end of the chair, facing Lexa.  She sat up in her chair and scooted to the end, mirroring his position.

“Beautiful weather for late November huh?” Bellamy said awkwardly.

Lexa ignored the question, “Were you wanting to talk to me about something?”

“Not one for small talk huh?” Bellamy joked cautiously.

The look Lexa gave him answered the question and Bellamy’s chuckle died on his lips.

“Uh, I just wanted to come out here and tell you that there are no, uh, hard feelings you know?” Bellamy stumbled.

“Hard feelings?” Lexa echoed.

“Yeah, with you dating Clarke and all,” the man clarified.

Lexa’s glare grew even colder than before and she steadied herself, “Why would there be hard feelings towards me?”

“There aren’t!” Bellamy said.  “That’s what I’m trying to say.  Clarke and I had our thing and then went our separate ways and we’re good now and I just wanted you to know that I’m glad Clarke has moved on and has someone now.”  Bellamy looked proud of himself for being the bigger “man.”

Lexa chuckled humorlessly, “Went your separate ways?  You’re good now?”

“Yeah, things just didn’t work out with us.  We’re good,” Bellamy said.

Lexa looked at Bellamy in awe.  She wasn’t sure if the man was full of shit or if he actually believed what he was saying but either way, it ignited a flame of anger in Lexa.  “I heard about you guys ‘going your separate ways,’” Lexa said sharply.  “You didn’t give her much of a choice when she caught you cheating on her.”

Bellamy was clearly caught off guard that Clarke had shared the details of the situation with this girl.  “Listen, you know how crazy women can be…” Bellamy started.

Lexa’s felt the thin bit of restraint inside of her starting to break.  She wanted nothing more than to surge forward and knock every one of this man’s stupid, white teeth out of his head but she had promised Clarke that she would be on her best behavior.  That she wouldn’t make a scene.  She looked towards the house and could see into the kitchen window where Abby was looking out at them curiously.  She took a deep breath and got an idea, smirking devilishly.

“Yeah, women, right?” Lexa laughed softly nodding her head towards the yard.

She stood up and walked out into the yard a bit to give herself some space and a second to think over what she was about to do.  Bellamy seemed to take the hint and let out a relieved breath.  Lexa made sure that she moved where they were in perfect view of the kitchen window before turning towards Bellamy and smiling warmly. She thumped him on the back with her right hand, hard enough to get his attention but not so hard that it didn’t look friendly to the untrained eye.

Her warm smile never faded but her cold eyes gave her away to only the man as she looked Bellamy in the eyes and dropped her voice so only the two of them could hear, just in case of eavesdroppers.  “I’ll tell you a little something about that ‘woman,’” Lexa said fiercely.  “She is the best, smartest, sweetest person that I have ever met and she deserves the world.  She…,” Lexa shook her head but never let her smile waver.  “She still trusts and is open to love despite you.  She told me about you not being able to keep your dick in your pants and her catching you in the act with Echo.”

Bellamy looked like he was going to interrupt but Lexa’s glare and the smile slipping from her face for only a split second, stopped him.  She planted the smile back on her face and pointed towards the window where Abby was looking out.  She smiled warmly at the woman and waved.  Bellamy did the same, finally realizing what was going on.

“Now, I know that the only reason Abby is still so kind to you is because Clarke is who she is.  She doesn’t want Abby to see you differently because of what happened but I, I don’t give a shit, Bellamy.  I would like nothing more than to beat your face into the concrete for what you did to Clarke and trust me, I’m more than capable,” Lexa said with a smirk.  “I could care less what Abby thinks of you and would actually love to see what happens if I were to inform her about what really happened but because I love and care about Clarke, I wouldn’t betray her trust like that.  I promised her I wouldn’t make a scene or cause trouble today and so I am keeping my promise to her.  I always keep my promises.”

Bellamy looked almost relieved.

“The problem with that,” Lexa continued.  “Is that I also promised her to always love and protect her and stand up for her honor.  And we were doing just fine, buddy, until you came out here and tried to play it off like you didn’t do anything wrong and Clarke had blown things out of proportion and insinuated that she was some crazy woman.  I can’t let you talk about her like that.  You understand, right?”

Lexa’s smile was still firmly in place and Bellamy tried desperately to match it for the sake of Abby still watching on curiously.  He nodded his understanding rather than speaking, not trusting his voice.

“So, let me make this perfectly clear.  This is your one free pass.  Here, on campus, or otherwise, if I ever hear you utter a single cross word to or about Clarke, if I hear about you twisting the story of your relationship to make Clarke look bad, if I so much as THINK you’re looking at Clarke in a way that doesn’t satisfy her or me, I will make sure that you live to regret it.  That’s a promise and like I said, I always keep my promises.  Got it?”

Bellamy looked visibly shaken and like he was barely holding onto the smile he had in place.  Lexa seemed satisfied and looked towards the back door where Clarke was sanding looking out at her worriedly.  She finally let a real smile grace her features and winked at the blonde beauty.  She turned her attention back to Bellamy and thumped the man on the back again, clearing her throat.

“Hmm…sorry if I lost my cool there for a second,” she said in a clearly fake apology.  “You know how crazy us women can be sometimes.”

And with that, she walked towards the house, leaving Bellamy standing in the yard by himself, looking dumbstruck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damnnnnnn Lexa! *drops the mic*
> 
> Well, what'd you think? i know some of you were really upset that Bellamy was getting away with hurting Clarke but you know protective Lexa has her back and I don't think this is over just yet. ;) anyways, wrapping up thanksgiving, so what comes next ya'll? Give me some more firsts you want to see or some songs that inspire your Clexa love! hit me with it and comment and let me know what you thought of this one!


End file.
